George's upcoming trial

I officially entered George in next weekends schooling horse trial at Bucks County Horse Park. It will be his first full event at starter level (and my 5th ride EVER on him, but who's counting?). I'm definitely excited to see how it goes. I'll get in a practice ride the day before and hopefully all goes well. The plan for next Sunday is as follows::

1: LUNGE!!!! No hour long warm up trotting at Mach 50 while my trainer tells me "you didn't look like you were having trouble controlling him; that's a good thing!" and my arms are noodles by my dressage ride time.

2: Canter stadium (with better brakes!)

3: Complete XC with no refusals. That doesn't mean I don't plan on walking him over things if that's what it comes down to. He's 17.2 for gods sake. The jumps are like ground poles to him!

9 days and counting!

Happy Halloween!

Tonight I carved my pumpkin. Because I live on a horse farm, I usually stick to that theme since my jack o lantern sits outside the barn. This year I printed a stencil off of pumpkincarvingonline.com

It turned out super great!

Boo! FHI2012 and a week of craziness

Been a while right? Things have been pretty nuts around here. Between showing the pony to prospective buyers, working, and being super stoked to go to Fair Hill for cross country day, I haven't had a lot of time to blog.

As crazy as its been, this past week was pretty AWESOME. The infamous Dusty Pony has found a new little girl to teach and take care of and will be moving to his new home before the month is out. I'm really happy, but also sad. It's been a great 12 years and I have learned so much from him and with him. I never thought I would sell him. I had always planned on him growing old and crotchety in my back yard and giving pony rides to my kids and the neighbors kids. But it's time to move on. My eventing dreams are at the forefront of my mind, getting stronger every day. I'll miss him every day but he'll be so happy to have much less work to do.

On Saturday I went with Megan and her friend, Malinda, to the Fair Hill International 3 day. And WOW was it awesome. Got to see a lot of big names take on the 2 and 3* courses. It's funny how not scary the jumps seemed. I must really be insane. Lol. I also spent some time fan girling Doug Payne from afar (sooo not brave enough to go talk to him) and walking within inches of Will Coleman. Sigh. I wish I wasn't such a chicken! Haha. I'm sure the last thing they need is a 28 year old staring slack jawed and drooling over them. Soooo not classy.

So now that I'm super motivated to be an awesome upper level rider, poor Pepper is going to work her little hony pants off. The plan is to take lessons on her to keep up my riding, save some money through the winter, and hopefully REALLY start horse shopping in the spring. I can't wait!!!!

Pepper's First Ride

Well, today I finally sucked it up and got on the grey hony mare. And it was REALLY uneventful. Lol. That's a good thing! From everything her mom has told me I was expecting a lot more drama.

I started off like I normally do, warm up on the lunge, trot and canter with side reins, then it was time to mount up! I was all decked out; skull cap, crash vest, emergency brakes (ie Malinda on the end of the lunge line haha!). We walked off annnnnd nothing. She was insanely quiet. Steering, not so great. She kind of goes along like a drunken sailor. No big. We can deal with that. Her trot was pretty good too. Steady, seemed to understand leg to outside rein half halts to some extent (score!). Had a few lovely moments that were of course not caught on the minute or so of video I had Malinda take as evidence. But we survived! And I know I can safely ride her. So now we get down to business. She needs to lose more weight. Chubby ponies are cute when there are 8 year olds riding them. Lol. Not 28 year olds attempting to be eventing stars. (In my dreams at least!)

Pepper also doesn't really seem to know the actual cues for any of her gaits. Kick and cluck means trot. Kick harder and kiss means canter. We'll work on that. As much as she hates it, and never really settles, she's going to need to spend a lot more time on the lunge and in side reins. I'm dreaming of her first dressage test already! And when she's thinned out enough to free jump! ;) Onward and upward!

Picture is a screenshot taken from a video so it's blurry. But yay cute pony! She needs a real dressage bridle, for sure!

Another Project

Yesterday I got a Facebook message from a friend and farm owner who brings her students and horses to schooling shows at Boots every summer, Heather McCarty. She offered me the use of her 7 year old, 16.3 HH paint/warmblood gelding, Bullet, to ride and event. Super score! Surprisingly, he's only been broken about 2 years, but Heather sent him for 3 months professional training when she bought him as a 6 year old, and planned to resell him afterwards. Well, her riding students fell in love with him and he's been helping her teach lessons ever since. Recently he's picked up some naughty habits with her less experienced students and needs a little refresher and a job to keep him from thinking up new tricks. So, yay me!

I rode him today, and man did he give me a workout! Definitely more woah than go. He's got a good start in dressage basics, and with some practice (ie dressage boot camp!) I'm hoping to get him to a trial before the season is out. Jumping is pretty much point and shoot, so not worried about that aspect. As long as we can get some weight on him (he's a bit of a hard keeper) look for him out and about in a month or so! Yay Heather!
Check out her web page!
http://www.horseng.com

Also pictures are not me. Lol.

Pony for Sale

Well, my horse search is not going very well and my bank account is getting smaller and smaller, so I am offering my pony for sale.

The Facts:

-14.1 HH, 18 years old, Palomino with silver mane and tail
-w/t/c, has jumped up to 3 feet, limited to 2'3" and under (my own choice, he deserves to not work so hard!)
-barefoot and SOUND. No major injuries in the 12 years I have owned him.
-has shown local schooling shows and a little Penn Jersey.
-trail rides like a champ! Goes through water, over bridges, past bikes, dogs, strollers, screaming kids, etc. I put my never ridden before friends on him with no worries.


Please contact me with any questions or to set up a time to come see him!
Email: eplechavy@gmail.com
Phone: 6107049119 (text is easiest, I don't always have great service at home)

Horse Shopping: Part 1

It's true, broke as I am, I have done some horse shopping lately. My awesome momma has agreed to help me out as long as the purchase price is not insane (meaning the cheaper the better!). I thought I had hit the jack pot last week when I found a Craigslist ad in the Harrisburg area that listed not one, but FIVE young, decent sounding horses. All in the same place. So I emailed, asked for pictures and more info on the ones I was interested in, got 3 not so great pictures back with no descriptions as to which horse they were. Darn. Second email. Asked about soundness for eventing and whether I could come and try them over the weekend. And then I waited. And waited. No response all day Friday. Called the girl around 6, left a voicemail and waited. And waited. Sent ANOTHER email asking her to please call me to set up a time and waited. Then waited some more. Argh! You would think if someone wants to look at 5 horses you have for sale, you would be all over that, right? Not the case.

Finally, Saturday morning I get ahold of her and make plans to drive out the next day. Score! So Sunday, I bust my ass to get all my work done since I'm expecting to possibly ride 5 horses and that could take all afternoon. Jared and I make the hour and a half drive, me on breeches and boots and him armed with cameras and instructions to take pictures and video just about EVERYTHING, and guess what?
We spent half an hour standing around in a muddy pasture looking at muddy, skinny, beat up horses that I did not even sit on. And it wasn't because I didn't want to. Apparently she literally thought I wanted to drive an hour and a half to just 'look at' the horses. Cue aggravation.

So now I will make the drive again this weekend (with Megan this time!) to actually try a couple. Stay tuned for more drama I'm sure. I guess that's what happens when your budget maxes out at about 500 dollars. Anyone wanna donate to my horse fund? Lol.