Horse Racing - Take Two

I have several horsey people in my circle of friends, and one of them happens to absolutely love horse racing. And yet... *gasp*... she had never been to a track and never seen a day of live horse racing.

So.... last Monday, I took R from Beyond the Stretch to a day of live racing at Oaklawn Park!  :)

All photo credit goes to R.

I've been to Zia Park for a regular day of racing, but Oaklawn Park was just a tad fancier and more elaborate. ;)  I was so glad that the weather was good... we were able to spend the entire day enjoying ourselves and standing on the rail.

The worst best part of the day was the three and a half hour drive one way to get to the track. I actually drove 7 hours in one day. No desire to do that again any time soon.  ;)

Last Monday was January 19th, which also happened to be a stakes day - featuring the Smarty Jones, the first 3yo prep race for the Kentucky Derby. Pretty exciting to see!

Winner of the Smarty Jones - Far Right.

I only lost a little bit of money throughout the day, and my pick for the last race was a winner who also broke her maiden in the race.  That was fun :)

My horse in the last race - nice looking filly!

It was a fun day out! I enjoy watching horse racing live and it's always good to spend time with friends.  :)

Learning to Ride

Fun development happened last weekend! I decided to get in touch with a friend of mine (who we'll call E) who has taught riding lessons in the past and also is one of the very few people in my area who actually knows something about English riding and specifically dressage.

You can't imagine how excited I was when she got back to me and said she could come and watch me ride.  Eeeek!  I was pretty excited to say the least.

And nervous. I have actually never ridden around someone who is a lot better than me. Never had a lesson in my life. I think I'm pretty good, and I do have a lot of knowledge in my head, but how do I measure up to someone else?

I actually was sick the morning of the day we arranged and almost cancelled because of it, but I was so glad later that I didn't. I squeezed a nap in and felt quite a bit better - good enough to ride at least with mediocre skill!  Lol...

Pretty much the whole time was spent on a circle with the middle portion on the lunge (which I definitely needed).
We weren't working on Lady, but on me, which was perfect because Lady is an angel and I'm the mess... right?

I wish it were this green again...

Biggest thing that I remember was that I need to keep my shoulders back and my elbows underneath my shoulders.  I have a bad tendency to slouch/tense my shoulders, so I'll have to work harder on that.

Main things I need to work on...

• Shoulders/elbows: create that line through shoulders/hips/heels.
• Push her forward with my seat/hips. I thought I was doing this, but it wasn't enough.
• Drop my heels in two point, and then drop them further.
• Pinkie finger goes under the rein, thumb stays on top. Don't let it slip.
• And I need to drop my stirrups every ride. Yeah...
• Ride the halt - its a transition.

I enjoyed every minute of the ride and I loved getting feedback about my riding. If the weather holds, we'll be getting together again on Sunday, and I'm really really excited. 

Travel Planning Monday: Anxious Horse Mom

I'm definitely an anxious horse mom, and leaving my babies for 6 weeks is very very hard to accept.

Because I do have some adorable fur-babies.  :)

Anyways... since I still live on my parent's property and am super lucky to have someone always around to do feeding and watering and basic checking-on-the-animals, I don't really have a lot to worry about. Even if the family is a bit begrudging about doing outdoor chores for me. Oh well.

So, I've been trying to get everything prepared for my extended absence... and its still stressing me out.

With two and a half weeks left until we fly out, I still need to...

• Stock up on feed... How in the world do I add up how much I'll need?
• Prepare supplements.... Again, make sure I have enough and that its set out clearly labeled.
• Set up clear written instructions for everything that needs to be done.
• Get contact information for vet and hoof trimmer.
• Have Lady's feet trimmed.
• Make sure arrangements have been made for hay to always be available for all three horses.
• Check fences.  (Sigh)

My second problem is that I really don't like leaving Lady for six weeks without having any exercise.  It probably isn't as big of a deal as I make it, but she does stiffen up if I leave her sitting in the pasture for too long.

So.... I got one of my horsey friends to agree to come out and ride 2-3x per week. Of course.... that makes me nervous too because in the 7 years I've owned Lady, I can still count on one hand the people I've allowed to actually ride her. I just don't share very easily.... but its going to be okay. We'll discuss how Lady likes to be handled and groomed and saddled and ridden. 

How do you handle leaving your horses for any period of time?  What kind of preparations do you make?  :)

He's Finally Here!

Remember when I wrote up a post about a certain baby horse that I would be taking in?
Well... he arrived here on Sunday and I'm pretty much loving having three horses again. So much fun.  :)

He's young, about 2 and a half, not yet gelded, and not at a weight where I would like him to be, but we can fix that.  :)
Right now he's in the paddock by himself so that he can eat all the hay he wants and because I'm not quite ready to put him out with my girls.

I let Lady meet him over a fence today and it went alright.  They had had two days of seeing each other across the property already to let him settle in.
I brought Lady over and did a little basic groundwork with her around his paddock to make sure she was listening to me. She was alert, but she was a good girl.  I did turn her loose to let her go meet him, mainly because she gets very expressive with her front legs when she meets a new horse (aka strikes and half rears) and I don't wish to be hurt.

I let them have a few minutes to figure things out over the fence and I'm kind of thinking it will all be okay. Tomorrow or Thursday I'm going to put them both out in the arena and see how things go...

Such an adorable baby.  And I love his ears!
He responds to pressure with a lot of correct responses, but he gets worried and has to move his feet in order to deal with that anxiety. He leads okay, but wants to follow directly behind you, so we'll have to deal with that.  My plan is to get a lunge whip out on Thursday and actually have a proper lesson on leading. He'll be a fast learner - I can feel it  :)

And who couldn't love those soft eyes...

Here's to Comanche Moon, everyone. I love baby horses.  :)

Travel Planning Monday III: Winter Packing

Part I - Making Decisions
Part II - Where to Go and Transportation

The dates for our trip to Europe are February 11 - March 25. For the most part that classifies as winter and winter in Europe usually means cold and wet.
Happy day.

We are going at this time for several reasons.
1)  It isn't tourist season. More culture!
2)  Everything is cheaper. Always nice.
3)  Good timing between school semesters for me!

In some ways this makes packing easier (aka less clothing gets sweaty from hot days). But we also do need to keep warm and dry. Obviously, right?

The question comes to: how many layers and jackets we need to pack. Trick question!

So far I've picked up several sweaters and leggings to use for layering but I still need to find some light jackets and decide on a coat.
But my problem is that I can't seem to settle on/find something that will be warm and look fashionable AND not be too bulky to pack. Ackkk!

Riding Sport Fleece Jacket from Dover

I like fleece jackets and this one (or something like it looks nice) but I can't seem to find something that really appeals to me. I also like vests, which, paired with certain things, can be very fashionable.

I do own a pretty nice wool coat that I'm considering taking along as a "heavy weight blanket" option if I need it, but it is heavy... which makes me hesitate.

Sigh!  What would you pack?

And believe me, I already have clothing marked for riding purposes while I'm gone!  Mwahahaha....

Something Old, Something New

If you've been reading for any length of time, you know that my lovely girl is not a youngster. She was 9 when I bought her in 2007 (you can do the math) and she had had quite the full career by that time already.

I made the switch to riding English early in 2014 and started really studying riding in earnest. We've had lots of bumps and bobbles along the way but we're coming along quite nicely, if I do say so myself.  :)

But every once in a while I wonder about what this journey would have been like with a younger horse.

With Lady, we had years together and she had even more years of experience before that, so a lot of the dressage and jumping training we've done in the past year has been more re-learning for both of us than anything else. Its new things, yes, but its also breaking old habits and learning new ones in their place.

With a younger, more green horse there is a lot of teaching good habits for them to have for the rest of their lives. You have to teach them how to use their bodies correctly and carry themselves and not knock jumps over.

With a green horse, you have to teach them about proper bend and straightness as a habit. With Lady, I'm having to teach correct bend/straightness over her many years of going crooked and compensating.  Big difference.

I'm more or less thinking out loud here.... so I'll pass it on to you?  Have you trained a green horse or an older horse or both?  What are your thoughts?

2015 Pickles

Last Sunday (the 4th) I got Lady out, saddled up and rode around for 20 minutes or so.  She was definitely in a mare-ish mood and very strong, so we had to work through that until she softened a bit. It was a bit of a frustrating ride but we ended on a fairly good note...

The next Tuesday (the 6th) we did groundwork first, because of how pickle-ish she had been on our last ride. (Pickle is now my new favorite expression for Lady.....).  She behaved decently enough so I went ahead and rode for almost 30 minutes. We actually had a mini breakthrough about bending and straightness, which I plan to write about sometime. She was still being a naughty pickle and avoiding work like the plague - aka stopping, pulling, running out at ground poles (really?) and going hollow instead of forward. Silly horse.

Yesterday I thought about riding, but decided to stick with groundwork instead. We played around in the pasture with catching and approaching and being a good horsie. She was having way too much fun being a crazy Arab and with the insane amount of mud out there, it made it hard to do much. We had some fun stumbling around though and she softened after a while. She got treats and I got hugs.  :)

Fuzzy pony wants more peppermints.....