Blogaversay!

I can't believe it has been a year since I started blogging.  It is kind of funny, because I wasn't expecting people to read it.  I mostly wanted a way to keep track of Stinker's progress (little did I know shit was about to hit the fan) and if someone read it awesome.  Not only do people read it I think some might even like reading it (shocking)!  Anyway to celebrate I thought I would share some of my favorite things about blogging.

Enjoy some of the outtakes from trying to get a good shot.

1)  The people!  I have contacted a number of you for various reasons and everyone has been so nice and helpful.  It gives me hope for the internet.  Also, I love reading peoples comments, because I enjoying hearing other people's thoughts and partially because it comments give me warm fuzzy feelings.

2)  The journeys.  I didn't realize when I started how vested I would become in other people's journeys.  I get excited when my favorite blogs have a new post and reading about other people's struggles has really put mine into perspective (which I need sometimes).

Too tired.

3)  The writing.  I didn't expect to enjoy writing the posts as much as I do.  I get excited when I think I have a really good post that people will like or if I had a fun weekend that I want to share.  I don't feel bad about getting into the nitty gritty, because you don't have to read it if you don't want to.

4)  The accountability.  I have gotten into the swing of three posts a week (I don't know how you ladies do 5-7 posts, plus ride, plus work, you guys are awesome) and it gives me motivation to analyze my rides or explore random topics that pop into my brain (or buy expensive toys).

I can't possibly look at you right now.

5)  The new ideas.  I have gotten countless ideas from other bloggers.  New exercises, new ways of thinking about things I have heard a million times, new tack, awesome toys I didn't know existed (that should be a post).

6)  Exploring new disciplines.  I am still relatively new to English riding and personally focus on dressage and eventing, but I follow blogs that let me explore the worlds of endurance to hunters.  It is fun to see the different disciplines.

The hell beast mini decided to sleep right in front of the barn.

7)  The toys.  While my budget doesn't like this, I love hearing about new products and my collection has expanded quite a bit due to other bloggers.  I can usually resist one, but when multiple jump on board my curiosity gets the better of me.

So thank you all for making this past year of blogging so much fun.

Spurs

I have been feeling a little frustrated lately, because I don't feel especially effective with my leg when I am riding Stinker.  We seem to have two modes, ignoring and OMG it TOUCHED ME!!!!  Not exactly ideal.  I was trying to figure out how to make my aids more precise and subtle.  If it isn't precise he ignores it, if it isn't subtle he panics.  I was toying with the idea of spurs, but didn't really think that they would help.

Swan Neck Spurs from VTO.

Then I was looking through Austin's old blog posts and found one about swan necked spurs.  After pondering, and questioning her (thanks by the way), and running my scheme pasts S and D, I bought the spurs.  I figured that a $25 experiment wouldn't be the worst waste of money, because it would either work or it would be such a hot mess I would get $25 of entertainment out of it.  Either way I was ok with the money spent.

Ready for use.

The first day I rode in them, it was in a lesson with S, because I wanted help figuring out when I was touching him with them and maybe some help if there was a melt down.  He was super tense at first, but didn't over react which was a win to start off with.  Throughout the ride, he did settle and while it wasn't our best work it wasn't bad either.  I did think it was easier to straighten him and I can actually keep my leg long and use something besides my calf (I am not sure if that falls under tall people problems or short horse problems).

I also really liked the weight of the spur.  Like Austin said, I felt like the weight helped keep my heels down.  I haven't seen video of myself, so I might be delusional.  But for now I will believe it helps me with my heels.  As far as showing goes, I can't wear them for eventing, but they are dressage legal.  I figure that if I ever get to where I am showing eventing (that is a pretty big if for us at this point), I can survive one warm up and dressage test without them.  Or I could wear another style if I get that paranoid.

Stinker tried to yank them away from me.

A Decidedly Non Horsey Weekend

I had a whirlwind weekend that had very little horse involvement, so feel free to skip it.  My sister had her pro BJJ debut this weekend, so I flew out to Denver for that.  Friday was exhausting.  I was up for about 20 hours straight (mainly due to my insanity).  I drive for 2.5 hours to get to the airport so I can have a direct flight, which means I got up obscenely early.

My parents picked me up in Denver and we were meeting a friend of my mom's for lunch.  We ended up driving around for two hours (I was totally hangry at this point), before we found a place for lunch.  I was happy, because I got to have green chili.  Then we went and hung out with my sister for awhile, which was really nice because I usually only see her for an hour or so.

Ok I will admit I totally took this picture to taunt one of my friends since she was home writing a grant.

The fights were really awesome.  My mom sprung for a table and we (my brother and his family and one of my cousins and her husband) ended up being right where the people walked out to the stage.  I had no idea what was going on, but it was fun to watch and cheer.  I told my sister the next time we needed to have a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu expert at the table.  Unfortunately, my sister's match did not go the way she had hoped, but it was still really awesome.

She might kick my ass for putting this up here, but I still think she is a total bad ass!

The next day we had brunch with everyone and then went to the Museum of Nature and Science with my brother and his family.  I hadn't been to it in forever and it was really cool.  Then we went downtown for ice-cream and visited a game store.  My brother has a huge board game collection and I love playing with his family (even if he only lets me play them once so I can't get good at them).  After that I got to have Mexican food with one of my really good friends.

They had a whole section of Munchkin variations.

I flew back on Sunday and went straight to the farm from the airport.  I was really excited for multiple reasons.  One I missed my horse apparently I can't make it two days without seeing him, and two I had a new toy waiting for me.  I had a pretty good ride.  We just walked and worked on being straight.  We did have one moment that made me laugh.  He wouldn't get off my leg, so I touched him with my spur and he jumped like I shocked him and whipped me with his tail.  Seriously, he flipped that thing so it came over my shoulder and whacked my arm.  Oh Sinker.  It took me 18 pictures to get one where his ears are forward, eyes open, and no shadows.  I guess I shouldn't quit my day job anytime soon.

Sneak peek at the new toy!

April Conformation

We lost a little bit of ground this month.  Stinker had almost two weeks off because of his feet, but I am hoping that he will gain it all back this month.  Feel free to weigh in on his progress.  I am always curious about other people's opinions even if I don't agree with them.

Left side.  The neck is still giving me fits.

I am pretty sure the ground is sloped here, but I can't figure out a better place to take the picture.

His shoulders are so uneven, but I think his top line is improving.

Now for the comparison shots.  This month I am still going to compare back to January, but I think I will be dropping that and proceeding with just using February as my baseline.  I can't handle the scraggly mane and inconsistent location I did in January.

I think he looks way better in April (bottom), but January is a terrible picture to start.

He was trying to chew on his lead rope and looks a little drugged...

His neck looks better in February (top), but that was a lucky shot.

I seriously can not wait for him to shed out and be one color.

His back has more muscle, but he is still horribly uneven.

Clinic Report

We had a clinic this past weekend at the barn.  It was with a semi local upper level rider, and this year there are four horses that he started and sold at various points entered in Rolex.  I rode with him last August and really enjoyed it.  Unfortunately, the stars did not align so I wasn't able to ride this time around.

No media from the clinic since I wasn't riding.

I am not going to lie, watching the clinic made me really sad I wasn't riding.  One he really pushes you (without over facing you), two he really pushes the basics, and three it is super reasonably priced (love bang for your buck).  Pongo pulled a shoe in my lesson last Thursday and our farrier was out of town and we couldn't get the shoe put back on in time, plus the younger rider had dibs on him anyway.  I could have ridden Stinker, but I wasn't sure how well we would do with this particular rider.  So, I decided to pass.  In hindsight we would have been fine, but I don't feel confident in knowing if I am going to get the horse that is going to pitch a fit or not when I brush him with my leg.  Plus I feel like I have a really good system going with S and D so why rock the boat.

Gotta love the evening rides as the sun sets.

For stadium he set up a grid that looked really fun.  Everyone (S included) trotted into the grid then it was a short four (you really had to hold) to a long one.  The point of it was in order for the horses to hit every thing correctly they really had to stay on their toes and get rounder over the jumps.  This helped to teach everyone how to add strides without just pulling back and slow down.  It was all about building the jump and power in the canter.

For cross country it was a lot more of the same.  Everything was about finding the right canter where you can add strides without pulling and get the horses deep to the jump.  Most of the girls are on ponies (we have some kick ass ponies around the barn), so he was really pushing the basics so the girls will be able to maximize their ponies jumping abilities.

Overall it was a fun and exhausting weekend.  And enjoy Stinker and I doing our version of cross country.  He is a total XC machine.  ;)

Must Haves In A Barn

With lots of changes looming in the next year or so, I am starting to freak out about having to find a new barn.  The barn I am at is the only one I have ever boarded at, and while it isn't perfect it is pretty amazing.  I think it will be hard to find another one like it, but I am trying to put together a list of needs/wants to see if I am totally unreasonable in my desires.

Twitchy, my favorite barn cat.

Must Have

• Proper care.  It doesn't have to be fancy but I need to know if I am not there my horse will get fed, have hay, clean water, clean stall, and someone will notice if he does something idiotic.
• Turnout.  If he could be on pasture board and only be brought in for feeding/bad weather I would be cool with that too.  But he needs a large chunk of daily turnout.
• Tolerant attitude.  Stinker is an acquired taste and I need some place that isn't going to get pissy about him.  D had to move him when she had him, because they were getting mad about him dumping his water bucket.  The barn that I am at now, laughs at my shame when he gets bored and turns on his water hose and floods two and part stalls.  Not to mention some people get poop face when they hear he is a Saddlebred.
• No barn hours.  I didn't even realize this was a thing until I started looking at barns to get an idea of what is out there.  I need a place that doesn't care if I show up super early or late into the evening.
• Ring for dressage

Angry mini post mane roaching with scissors....

Wants

• Access to trails.
• Stadium and XC jumps.
• On site trainer I would ride with or a trainer that comes in regularly that I like.
• Short commute.  It is unlikely that I will have everything like I do now, but a girl can dream.
• Fun people.

I don't think I am being unreasonable with my must have or wants.  What do you think?  Am I forgetting something or being totally unrealistic?

Wilbur (I call him Bacon to irritate the girls)

Lessons Learned

Monday I rode Stinker for the first time in two weeks.  He felt really sticky and crooked and it wasn't a great ride, but I videoed it for one of my lessons with D.  Tuesday I rode him for 30 minutes and we just walked around on the hills and he felt a bit better.  That evening I got a chance to watch it and promptly freaked out.

Left side

I only made it three minutes into the video before I decided that I couldn't stand watching it any more.  He wasn't tracking up with his right hind.  His left had a nice overstep (typical), but the right was consistently short (abnormal).  Considering his right hind is my favorite leg to obsess over (aka the weaker leg) and the fact that the vet had been out on Tuesday and didn't look at Stinker (for a change) I went straight to crazy town.

Right hind not stepping up.

In attempt to get a bit of my sanity back, I had a lesson with S Wednesday.  I had been planning on riding Pongo, but I decided I wanted to get her eyes on Stinker.  He felt a million times better and S said he was tracking up evenly.  He was really good.  We just walked but we were able to work on straightening him, leg yields, spiral in and out, and serpentines.

The tired wild red beast

The moral of the story is I need to remember that if he has had some time off he is going to be sticky and it is going to take a couple rides to straighten things out.  And I need to keep a lid on the crazy.