Blog Hoppin'

We're currently experiencing a real West Coast fall, complete with what feels like never ending wind and rain. I'm personally a fan of said weather. I'll be craving sunshine and warmth by spring, but rainy days are my happy place for carving out riding and hiking time. It's also time to move the power tools back inside and get renovating that house we have yet to move into. We've set a deadline of November 1st. We'll see...I'm 99% sure we won't have a kitchen. We also will have a ton of work left to do on the house we're currently in to prep for sale or rent, but otherwise we'll likely survive and make the move. I hope?

Riding and hiking (and renovation) time aside, with the ever shortening days it does still feel like an appropriate time to sit down with a cup of coffee and unapologetically slow down a little bit. 

Thank you to Anna at Anxiety at A who has provided just the blog hop I need.

1. If you could create your dream horse, what would it look like?

I'm such a sucker for a bay or chestnut with a blaze. Despite the obvious love of Welsh Ds I have, this last time I was shopping I didn't have any specific breed in mind and found myself looking at Connemaras, a really neat Morgan cross and some pony/warmblood crosses. So, I guess you could say I have a type.

Halcyonia Feature Presentation, Trademark's sire, ticking so many of my boxes

2. Least favorite equestrian brand? 

I'm kind of feeling tired of all the ads for matchy matchy pads, boots, leggings, etc etc for all the brands that all kind of seem very similar. Like if you don't have the fall/winter 2023 'range' of products in 'the color' from 'the brand' you're less than. One of the things about horses I used to like was that if you spent the money you'd get something timeless that should last you years. I'm feeling less confident in that now, everything from saddles to blankets to riding apparel feels like much of it is intended to be a lot more temporary than my budget would like.

3. Favorite horse show memory?

I went to a combined test day in the city and Bridget absolutely showed up for it. Probably the first time I really felt her taking me to the fences and confident about her job.  It was also one of those rounds where every fence came up perfectly. I don't even remember if or how we placed, but after the amount of hard work I put in that round was everything. Beyond that, horse shows have been making me stressy for a number of years now, so I look fondly back at the local shows we went to as kids where I was literally just there having fun.

4. One thing you learned in your youth (or early in your horse experience) that has stayed true in your horse training today?

I got a job at a trail riding business when I was maybe 10, and the owner was super old school but fair. So while we know better about many things today, she was still invaluable as far as teaching common sense horsemanship and keeping things simple but effective.

5. How many horses do you think you’ve ridden in your entire horse career?

It would be a lot more than my riding ability would indicate ;) Right off the bat at that trail riding business we would have been looking at 25+ and then there have been so many lessons, leases, jobs requiring me to exercise horses, etc, all in addition to the horses I've owned.

6. Favorite “Celebrity” horse?

I don't have a stand out favorite but I always like the more unexpected partnerships, like where the kid just never outgrew the Connemara pony and now here they are at the Olympics.

7. Embarrassing moment in your horse experience?

Like the time at a show B smashed into a fence instead of jumping, then stopped to poop on the remains? Or the time I was in a class of one and the judge jokingly said 'just don't fall off" and so I did? :)

8. Favorite stallion in your discipline (or generally favorite stallion if you have one)?

Ugh, tough one again. Not sure I have a favorite. When we attempted to breed B, I went with Stibby Me and Golden State, so obviously I liked them both for her, for different reasons. But outside of that? I think it would depend on if I was fantasizing about eventing or dressage. Whichever the case, as I'm sure you might guess old fashioned chunkier warmblood breeding or a nice Irish horse always appeals.

Golden State maybe not my dream pony but I thought would balance B's shortcomings nicely.

Stibby Me. Just love him, that is all.

9. How’s your sitting trot?

A literal sore point. I grew up riding ponies and horses bareback so it's the one thing I never needed to worry about. Then this year and lower back issues happened so it's posting only for me. Let's hope I can get back to it soon.

10. What are your favorite colors on your horse (s)?

Bridget always had black or navy, then Sophie arrived and green felt like a good idea. Bakari and Trademark are coming to live with us shortly, but being black and bay I think we'll stick to the classic colours and B's hand me downs. So unexciting, I know.

11. What social media do you spend the most time on?

Instagram picture scrolling is where it's at for my attention span. Youtube if that counts - I don't normally watch regular TV so equestrian vlogs are my guilty pleasure. 

I keep trying to clean up my facebook feed but it really does seem like all my favorite people don't bother with it anymore. It's currently a super weird combination of grandma telling me I'll have bad luck for 7 years if I don't like the picture she posted mixed with clickbait facebook ads and constant posting about weird political agendas from acquaintances I need to unfriend.

12. Any horsey books you’ve read recently?

I've been rereading everything Jec Ballou and gleaning new bits of information.

13. What is your favorite online store to buy horse products from?

Sprucewood Tack is the Canadian store I mostly use. Currently Australia is my go to for more unique things - their dollar compares to ours and shipping for some reason is more inexpensive than the US or Europe. I've had good experiences with QJ Riding Wear and Lumiere Equestrian

14. Is there a supplement you give your horse that you don’t think you could go without?

Mad Barn Visceral (an ulcer supplement). Currently that's the only one I'd be worried about missing. I'm not sure it's actually doing anything but Sophie's ulcer situation stresses me out and I feel better knowing I try :)

15. What is your favorite part about blogging

I started doing it to document the journey with Ginger, a welsh D mare I had years and years ago. Getting comments and people actually interested in reading about us actually felt really outside my comfort zone at first. Now I think the sense of having a virtual barn community is my favorite part and why I keep writing. 

For anyone who remembers Ginger, somehow that quirky youngster turned 16 this year! She's still very much treasured by her second owner, doing local jumper and dressage shows and even a bit of eventing.