December's 10 Questions

Thank you Viva Carlos for providing some inspiration during this dark time of no writing inspiration.

1. What size horse do you prefer to ride?  I definitely prefer bigger horses. Nothing against small horses/ponies. I love them to death. But I adore being on top of a tall and/or bigger horse.

2. Do you school in tall boots or paddock boots and half chaps?  Umm... jeans and western boots right now. I'm hoping to get a pair of paddock boots and half chaps in the spring. Tall boots? Eventually.... :)

3. What do you do with your ribbons after a show?  Hang them up on the wall. Because I have almost none. Lol.

4. Do you ride/board at a large show barn or a small private barn?  Umm... neither?  I am super blessed to have my horses in my backyard :)

5. Have you ever seen a horse give birth?  Nope. Came close once, but no.

6. What is your favorite breed?  Oooooh.... Arabians and Spanish horses are my absolute favorite. I love warmbloods and Thoroughbreds and drafts too, but I'll take an Arab or a Friesian/Andalusian any day :)

7. Favorite tack brand?  Hard to say because I don't have enough experience, but I have been adoring the look of Devoucoux's stuff lately. The leather!

8. Would you ever buy used tack?  Yup. My current saddle was used as was my girth and another third of my tack. Now clothing is another story - I'm pretty picky.

9. Ever been on a carriage ride?  Does a covered wagon ride count? Because that's the closest I've been.

10. How often do you go to the tack store?  It depends. My local tack store doesn't carry feed, so I actually have to need something. Maybe once a month, or when I'm figuring a tack issue out, 5-6 times within 2 weeks?

Length of Time

Writing has just been so hard to do lately, especially when I'm trying to keep up with two blogs, manage all the social media work that comes with publishing a book, and work on Christmas presents. Oh my!  :O

I have not had taken the time to play with either of the horses since early last week. Totally my fault... the time has been there. I just haven't managed it well.

Cute picture of Lady in her blanket because cuteness.  :)

 I do have full intentions of riding tomorrow morning and even spending time with The Pony. So we'll see. With school being over now, I'm slowly catching up on everything and horses should be next on the list.  ;)

My favorite from our attempt at conformation photos the other day

I'm super excited to see more posts from the Equestrian Blogger Holiday Gift Exchange as everyone receives their gifts!  I'm slightly behind on mine, but I will get it sent out as soon as the last part of it gets into my hands. Definitely by the end of this week! :)

One of Those Crazy Days

It had been about a week since our last ride, so I wasn't completely sure what to expect on Tuesday when I went out.

Let's just say that the cooler, nicer weather had both of the girls feeling pretty energetic.

I pulled her out, groomed her off a little (bay horse is DUSTY!), and saddled up. She was good as gold a little fidgety, but pretty well behaved for the most part. I had the teensiest bit of trouble mounting up because she didn't want to stand by the fence. I really really need a good mounting block, but since we ride randomly throughout our 10 acre property, nothing is ever in its proper place.

"Senior horse" was ready to go and we marched along on the buckle for a little bit so that she could warm up. Best walk ever. Seriously, if I could have that kind of energy in our walk more often, we could win dressage tests. It was awesome and swinging and she was actually mostly straight too.

The trot was a bit wiggly at first, but it settled down and we had some nice moments. After we were both warmed up we went into the "arena" because I'm still not confident enough to try and canter in an open area like that. Our stop/go/turn buttons just are not as solid at that gait and I'm still focused on making all our cantering into a good, safe experience.

However, cantering wasn't really in the sights because she was so full of herself. We did a few strides here and there, but a whole lot. Instead, we did a lot of trotting in boring loops around the arena and worked on rhythm. Boring to talk about, yes, but it happened. Lots of loops in this direction and that direction and through the center and around the edge and deep into the corners. I played with figuring out my diagonals and really stretching down into my heel because my right leg is stupid and won't stop swinging. My legs were pretty worn out by the time we finished.

Best view ever :)

Best of all, we actually jumped something!  There is a long feeding trough that I use a lot for practicing lungeing over and we were feeling so good (probably adrenaline) that I pointed her at it and we popped over it. Probably about 2', so not big, but it felt great.  Second go around wasn't quite so good since she figured out what I wanted her to do.
I also wasn't very good about setting her up with a proper distance or anything like that, so I ended up riding a few deer-leaps that were interesting. Definitely a first for me! Lol!

It was a great ride... we came across more problems and dealt with more issues than we usually do, but I kept my cool, she came back to me when I asked, and we had some fun. All great! :)

Wordless Wednesday: Sleepy

Apparently it was a verrrry long, hard ride. 

The New Saddle

No... I did not get another new saddle.  I just figured it was about time that I sat down and wrote about how things have been going with my biggest purchase of late.

Because leather.

I bought it in the beginning of October, so it has now been with me for 2 months and so far is working out quite well. It is my first leather saddle and that has been a learning experience in itself.

I have had to get used to the more forward flap than my Wintec had, but I really like it now. The seat isn't quite as cushy as I might like it to be, but again, not a big deal unless I decide to go on a long trail ride at some point, in which case, most saddles might get a bit hard.  ;)

Picture from when wearing a t-shirt was reasonable.

I'm also liking that it fits Lady. I did have to get a new girth to make it fit better, but that was a conformation thing that needed correcting and not a saddle thing.  As long as I keep it back and off her shoulders (like I'm supposed to do to begin with) then its not too narrow for her and there are is even pressure all along her back, which is exactly what I was looking for. :)

Best of all, Lady hasn't had a sore back and my EQ has come a long way in the last two months. Two things to be glad about, right??

Literature and Adorable Ponies

I didn't get my planned post up yesterday, so here is the non-horse-related exciting news that I have to share!

One of my 2014 goals was to publish my long-time-project novel.
Well... its happening, and Rebellion Under the Stars will be released on Amazon on December 18th!!

In case I didn't write that correctly....  I'm going to be a published author!  :D

I don't put a lot on this blog about my other projects besides horses, but if you're interested in more, then you can go to my author blog and/or like my facebook page.  A little more love is always awesome, and you might even find some cool things along the way.  :)

I'm really excited about this!  :) :)

 In my horsey life, I've ridden once since Thanksgiving so far and that was last Saturday.  The horses also got turned out in their new pasture that same day and they actually have some grass and hay now! Yay for fences :)  I also exchanged the blanket I bought on Black Friday for a smaller size and it now fits Lady. She wore it last night for the first time and looked quite happy this morning.

I had a friend of mine over for the day on Saturday, so I got to test some of what Lady and I have been working on lately. Lady can be very people oriented and in the past I have found it very difficult to work properly with her when there are people watching or in the arena because she gets glued to them.

Anyways, I was very happy with how everything went. She was much more focused on me than she usually is in this type of situation and we only had a few minor problems with pulling and wanting to go "her way."

You get older pictures because I don't have new ones...

Our trot work just keeps getting better and better. We played with some light contact, which is something I haven't dared to do yet because my posting isn't good enough and I end up jerking on her mouth, but since we were in the rope hackamore and we were really working well together, it seemed a good time to play with it. I'm not asking for any kind of frame, other than not hollowing her back or throwing her nose in the air. I just want a very soft connection for right now and she is learning to give me that.  :)

We don't have that much green anymore.

She was so absolutely awesome that I went ahead and asked for the canter. The transition was a little unbalanced, but we settled into it and had a good few strides before coming back down the trot.
The second time I asked for the canter was heading back towards the gate, which sometimes isn't the greatest idea. I still had slightly shorter reins and sometimes she resents that in the canter too. So I can't say I was setting her up for success, but I asked and she gave, and instead of her usual "run for home!" we had the most amazing canter yet! It wasn't completely balanced, but she was listening to me and wasn't rushing and it felt so cool...

Later on, while flipping through one of my riding books, I came across the idea of asking for the canter in the corner because the bend makes it easier to make the transition. Genius idea, and one that I knew, but hadn't put into practice. Guess what we'll be doing next time we canter... ;)

After I was finished riding, my friend J got on and rode for a short while. She still isn't very confident with riding, so it made me very happy that I was able to sit on the fence for the first time and just watch. She trotted around on her own for the first time in a long time and enjoyed herself. I was very proud of her for doing that and also a very proud horse mama because Lady took such good care of her.  :)

Horsey play time again this afternoon, if all goes well.... :)

November Review/December Goals

2014 is nearly over, oh my!  I've been crazy busy lately and December is going to be no exception.  Between Christmas, finals, shows, and everything else... well, let's just say I'll be a tad busy.  :)

I ended up  not really focusing on goals in November and just worked on getting things done as they came along.  :)

November Equestrian Goals:

• Keep up with horse chores.  Yup! And the ponies even got a new fence!
• Purchase an anatomical girth for Lady.
• Film USDF Intro Test A.

November Personal Goals:

• Plank Challenge.  This is one of the things that got lost in the busyness....
• Follow schedules and various plans.  Lots better. I did fairly good!
• Slide into winter successfully.

December Personal Goals:

• Stay sane throughout finals week and the rest of the Christmas show.
• Get accepted into university!
• Complete 2014 goals as well as possible.
• Have an awesome Christmas holiday (I get a week and a half off).
• Smile and relax :)

December Equestrian Goals:

• Complete 2014 goals as best as possible.
• Spend at least 30 minutes with the horses every day, even if its not doing anything in particular, just hanging out.
• During Christmas break, take a whole day to go trail riding.
• Get Tempest through basic groundwork skills again.
• Really work on my lower leg and get it more stable.

I might have some awesome and exciting horse-related news to share in a few days!  And I have some even more exciting non-horse-related news to share tomorrow!