Can't Wait/August Goals

So, the wisdom tooth fiasco went just fine...it kicked my butt a little more than I remember the first time around, but hey, I was also an indestructible teenager then! Bad news is there will be more to fix at a later date, good news is tomorrow is a holiday here in Canada and I hope to get out and enjoy some of it!

In the meantime, I'm getting more and more excited to get home. I've been reading all of your guys' blogs and all your goals and monthly recaps and I'm so, so excited to be close to being at a point where I can make a legit recap and riding plan!

For now, some August goals:

Find Bridget a ride home prior to the end of the month.
- I have a few leads and have fingers crossed something works out

Get the most I can out of my remaining lessons.
- It could be awhile before I get any more jumping lessons, so I need to push myself a little. I've come so far, but would still like to really ride through that inevitable line that I always find to hold back on. I need to always remember it's so much easier if I keep the same forward pace through the entire ride!

Make a list and check it twice.
- I live in a small town with little in the way of tack or farm supplies. It's best to buy anything I think I might need here where I can look in person and not have to pay monster shipping fees. Also, there is no provincial sales tax in Alberta. Bonus :)

Sell some things.
-This will be ongoing. I have an assortment of tack from past horses that will never fit either Ginger or Bridget, also a lot of riding clothes that are too big for me to keep wearing. I need to start sorting through it all and getting rid of what I don't need. I've accumulated a huge quantity of stuff, when what I really need are a few quality items that fit well and will last. Putting my old gear in a box in the basement doesn't make it go away.

Research.
- It's been a little while since I've had a really green horse and I should go back through my books and notes to see what I might be forgetting. Bridget is the exact opposite type than what I'm used to, so some chapters I have skimmed through in the past probably contain some useful information! 

Dieting/fitness.
-This is just a matter of keeping up with it and not getting discouraged when things level off for a bit. I'm doing good, but I can always be better! 

Random Musings

After the excitement of last week’s news, there’s not a whole lot of anything happening around here this week. I’m spending non work hours trying to work out all the logistics involved in buying a pony from Place A and transporting them to Place B, all while you’re living in Place C. Place B is also exceptionally hard to get to using a hauler, which doesn't help matters. I've detailed my previous adventures trying to get Ginger home, and right now am seriously wondering why I signed up to try it again. Also, why I bought another horse rather than an (obviously needed) trailer? (For the record, it’s because trailers don’t look like mini Gingers, and nicker at me with their adorable little pony ears pricked forward ;)

Trailer I want. Nice, but not so tempting I can't resist. (Even roaming wild and free out in the pasture with it's friends ;)

Bridget. Like Ginger, but mini. Willpower lost.

I've also been unable to control myself from reading all the tack catalogs and picking out shiny new things for the new pony. For the record, I've blown my entire horsey budget for the next 100 years or so, so looking through tack catalogs is just a huge waste of my time and only leaving me wanting things I had no idea I even ‘needed’ lol. In my resulting sadness, I ate a heap of ice cream for dinner last week, then got a horrible toothache. A trip to the dentist here showed no spontaneous ice cream cavities, so he took an x-ray. Then he was like “Did you know you still have half a wisdom tooth left?” No, actually I didn't. Why my dentist at the time only removed 3.5 and left half of one buried in my jaw so it could abscess later and I could have wisdom tooth surgery a second time in my life is a mystery. I kind of hate him for it, and expect I’ll hate him even more after my appointment  on Friday.(Although now I do have a legit excuse to eat ice cream yummy smoothies all weekend!)  I hope to be all patched up and ready to get back in the saddle for my lesson next Wednesday. For now, I’m just going hide a while longer and try not to make any crazy tack purchases while feeling all invincible on pain meds. At least I'm too stoned to drive in the meantime, so the local tack stores are safe from me for now.

Also, on the teeth topic, this is your friendly reminder have your horses’ teeth checked with their fall shots/check up if you haven’t done so in the last year or two. It sucks for your pony to have bad teeth, and it sucks for you to have to pay for all the extra feed those not so perfect  teeth demand over the winter. 

Meet Bridget!

I'm really excited to say that the little bay mare is going to be coming home to live with Ginger just as soon as we can arrange hauling.

 Little bay mare does come with a name: Bridget Jones. I have no intention of changing it since I find it a lot funnier than I probably should. (And yes, it's her registered name as well - double bonus points :)

Bridget's pedigree is here. It's also her birthday today, she's turning 5. She shares the same granddam as Ginger, but beyond that they're not related since Ginger originally came to be sold from a breeder in another area. Bridget also appears to have some Sec C breeding back there a bit, which may explain why at 14hh she is quite a bit smaller than her parents.

Me and my new pony on a test ride figuring out the steering situation. Please ignore the interesting tack choices - it was all borrowed. 

I'm quite excited about this - I feel like we're going to get along great, and it will be wonderful for Ginger to have a steadier buddy to head out and about with. While Bridget's personality/way of going is not anywhere near as big and 'look at me' as Ginger, she's super sensible and levelheaded and is going to be very much appreciated in her own right. She's a lot greener under saddle than I wanted (trained to pull a cart for a few months - my ride was only her fourth or fifth ever!) but she's got the mind I was hoping for and I'll have all winter to get ready for the spring shows. Also, she's a Welsh D and I'm slightly in love with the breed so compromises are easily made ;) By all accounts she is excellent with the cart and been all over the roads with it, so it's nice to know she's been out and about a lot more than the usual. I'm going to have to read up on driving cues to see if there is maybe an easy way to transition some of her previous training to under saddle work.

So freakin cute. Apparently my ultimate weakness is bay cobs with white blazes. Besides, my silly sense of humor will get endless enjoyment out of the fact that Ginger now has a Mini Me.

Wednesday Lesson Recap

After over a week out of the saddle, it sure felt nice to hop on Checkers for a lesson last night. I’m riding with a fun group of middle aged ladies right now, which is a nice change up from riding with kids for the first few months here. The kids are fun and inspiring in their own way, but it’s sure nice to ride with like minded adults!

 I’m probably  the weakest link in the current lesson, which is exactly what I need. While I’m not a competitive type, I’m also not the type who’s comfortable having others make compromises for me. As a result,  I’m forced a little outside my comfort zone. Checkers and I had one slightly hairy moment where I just read things wrong and got the wrong angle on a bending line mid course and messed up the pace. Checkers ended up taking a super long one over the middle jump and where we should have had a two stride we had me flailing and a one stride creating another long one followed by a runout at the next. In the end, we had to try it another two times to really get a feel for it, but I left feeling confident and comfortable with it and excited to do it again! I love that our coach puts a lot of difficult questions in our courses to make you plan ahead and ride super accurately – her method isn’t at all about raising the jumps as you progress, it’s more about creating more complicated questions. The intermediate lesson I ride in still keeps things around the 2’-2’3” mark for the most part, with the odd 2’6”. The next lesson group up is a big move up height wise to 2’6” to 3’ but they share the same courses so there won’t be many surprises there if and when the time comes.

I suck at picture taking, so here's a Throwback Thurday shot - a lesson with Lainey in 2012

Flatwork was fun.  We worked a lot on accurate transitions, doing an exercise of 15 sitting/collected trot strides alternating with 10 canter strides. Checkers loves to get fast and heavy, so getting her back somewhat smoothly to a collected trot takes a lot of planning!

Also nothing to do with this post. Pretty pic of Ginger, 2012.

Take aways:

-Still with the heels DOWN. Instructor was laughing at me – she’s like “every time you don’t like the distance you’re getting, you just bury your hands in her neck and your heels creep up – try to sit back and do something about it instead!”

-Checkers will look after me not matter what dumb decisions I make.

-I love my new fellow riders – they’re great at encouraging and cheering each other on.

-I don’t need to worry about Checkers’ jumping me out of the tack any more – I feel way more secure these days on her giant self and sat everything just fine when I remembered to wait and keep those pesky heels down.

-Checkers’ saddle – I love it! Its an old beat up Pessoa and it’s like it was made for me. Too bad the ones I’ve tried previously don’t fit Ginger, but something to keep in mind. I love my current saddle (Stubben), but after riding in so many different ones over the last few months, I’m starting to feel like it’s not as great a fit as it could be for me. I got it new on super clearance, so financially it wouldn’t hurt to sell it on….but do I really want to go back down the saddle fitting path when what I have is do-able?

Viva Carlos Blog Hop: Chock Full of Advice

This week, L. Williams asks: What is the best advice you've ever received from a Trainer or another rider? What is the worse advice you've received from a Trainer or another rider?

“You have good instincts – trust them”. I guess for some this could be taken to an extreme and used as an excuse to not seek out knowledge from other sources...however, it works for me because that kind of self assurance and narrow focus is opposite of who I naturally am. I’m always reading, always learning, and always second guessing everything I think I know. I figure one thing out, and then I’m off on another puzzle – meanwhile I’ve totally lost the original plot, and in the case of riding, lost touch with ‘the feel’ in favor of the science. There’s a reason my family calls me the professor (as in the absent minded one, unfortunately J )So the above piece of advice is one I find very useful– it’s my cue to slow my mind down and to just get out and listen to how things feel, and to be more confident in my interpretation of that. It’s helped to curb my default of second guessing myself for eternity and not progressing because I’m too busy trying to figure out how it all works from the latest book before I get on.

"Quit surfing the internet on you phone and take us out riding!" Ginger and Lainey, summer 2012

There’s been a bit more than a bit of bad advice as well. There was the clinician who asked me to use an ever shorter rein on Leaning Lainey. The rationale was that she was heavy and would eventually give and stop leaning if I had my reins at a short length – it would be uncomfortable for her to pull on me continuously. Once she ‘gave’, I was supposed to give for a stride, then repeat.  Reality was Lainey just cruised around enjoying the added support and my abs were on fire – there wasn’t even a hint of give, just even more heaviness. It was just one weekend, but my left shoulder still reminds me quite frequently about it, so it goes down as a long term bad advice. A time when I most certainly should have trusted my instincts and worried about her balance rather than her headsetJ.

"Let's go for a ride, I'm tired of holding my own head up.."

Also the time the online experts assured me that it was safe to feed dry beet pulp and that I was wasting time/energy by soaking it. First time I tried a tiny handful, pony choked. You can’t make this stuff up.

Fingers Crossed!

I've been chatting with a lady who's been apprenticing with one of our Olympic dressage riders, and she's thinking about moving to my home town and offering coaching/training! How excellent would that be? (Long time readers will know I'm moving home in a month to an isolated town on the BC coast that currently has no local coaches...my excitement at the prospect of a legit dressage coach is pretty high!)

Ginger and I, 2015. Just kidding, that's Jessica Wisdom and Cardi, of course!

Also, you need to keep your fingers crossed for me in regards to the ever so cute pony from last weekend. Nothing final yet, but I've got the go ahead from G, so fingers crossed that everything proceeds smoothly on that front and I have good news in a week or two!

Worst Weather

I looked out the window at work yesterday afternoon and was relieved to see it was dark and cloudy outside - finally a little rain to cool things down, and maybe a riding lesson that didn't involve quite so much sweating!

As soon as I walked out the door, I realized my mistake - it was still really hot and muggy out there. More significantly, those weren't clouds and a rainy mist - it was smoke and ash from all the awful wildfires the hot, dry weather has brought. By the time I walked the four or five blocks to the train station, my chest and eyes were burning, and I was coughing and wheezing along with what sounded like half the people there with me. I can't imagine it being healthy for anyone (or the horses!) to be out exerting themself in that kind of air quality so I went ahead and cancelled my lesson. Disappointing, for sure. Realized I definitely made the right call when I got home and found my truck covered in ash - so crazy! Here's hoping those more directly affected by the fires are all evacuated safely (animals too!) and we get some rain in the forecast.

Seriously no clouds, that's all smoke...(pic from the Edmonton Sun)

With the crazy high temps we rode in last weekend, and the severe storm warnings from my last lesson, it got me thinking - what's the craziest weather you've intentionally ridden in? Unintentionally?

I'll start: 

Intentionally - 2 summers ago I was only able to make it to the barn twice a week. Lesson day came and I was so excited to get out and ride Ginger that I ignored the crazy weather forecasts. About halfway to the barn the radio advised me we were officially under severe weather warnings, including a tornado watch. I was like...well...I'm most of the way to the barn already and the sun is shining out here... :) We did get a crazy storm about halfway through my lesson, and watched it getting closer and closer before poor Ginger got her first ride outside of the ring - a mad dash for the indoor. It sounded like the world was coming down around us, then an hour later the sun was back out. The good part of the story I made the right choice to not turn around and go home - my neighbourhood got hit really hard and had some bad storm damage.

Unintentionally - It used to happen way more often, but still does now and then if I head out on a longer ride. Anyone familiar with the Pacific Northwest/lower mainland of BC knows that in the winter they forecast rain nearly every day, sometimes rain and wind. That must get kind of boring/predictable for the forecasters, so they keep a little job security by mixing it up a bit: 'well in the morning we're looking at some misting, then late morning some showers, then afternoon a bit of a drizzle, and by evening some moderate sprinkling.' What they mean is it's going to rain all day, every day. So more than once, I've misinterpreted 'misting' or 'light drizzle' and headed out thinking that my rain gear will suffice, but sure enough I need to remember they meant to say 'rain...and wind....and lots of it!' Ginger likes to make a beeline for home, Lainey used to like to just turn her butt to it and look around at me now and then accusingly. Both of them are incredibly well broke when it comes to raincoats being put on and off and flapping around :)

WW: Oh Hi!

I woke up this morning to this picture on my text messages - G obviously stopped to say hi to Ms Gingersnap last night. I miss them both!

Weekend Recap Part 2

Little bay mare is 5 years old, 14hh and built quite differently from the other cobs I’ve seen. Ginger is quite tall and leggy for a Sec D, the black mare from last weekend and the buckskin mare from this one are more of a traditional, sporty type, while the bay mare is very cob like - built wide and stout with short little legs (We’re perfect together! lol) She’s not the typiest  or most athletic thing out there, but she’s very cute and sweet.

I took this pic at a little bit of a lower angle - her legs look a little shorter in real life!

 First impressions when I hopped on were that she’s built like a mobile couch. She may be even wider than Ginger or Splash. It feels like you’re riding a full size horse, only you’re somehow shorter than everyone else! Since they weren’t expecting me to ride, I was in a too-big western saddle with stirrups that can’t adjust short enough for me, and a rope halter for a bridle. On a driving pony who has only been under saddle a handful of times J Still, I felt good about it.

Steering was pretty good, transitions super green. She happily marched forward and gave the immediate impression that she’s a very confident and sensible little thing. Walk is nice and forward, trot surprisingly big, and canter is really nice. She’s naturally very well balanced. We even had a good little gallop, which was hilarious because in true cob style, it sounded very impressive, but actually we weren’t moving along any faster than a normal horse's working canter. I ended up riding her for the rest of our 3 hour ride and had  a blast – definitely one of the neatest trail rides I’ve been on. We went up a steep-ish mountain, came back down some very steep paths, toured through a vineyard, and even the edge of a golf course. Then back along through a rural subdivision and a busy-ish road to home.  We saw everything from dogs to cows and donkeys, vehicles and heavy machinery, sprinklers and golf carts at the golf course, heard the cannon things (sounds like gunshots and used to keep the birds away) at the vineyard, went through mud and water, open fields  and tight wooded paths – I can’t think of anything else pony would be expected to see, and she handled it all just fine. She happily takes the lead or follows behind, and doesn’t care what the other horses do, so no issues there. The only thing she really spooked at was at the very end of the ride - the mailbox at the farm driveway, proving she is actually a tiny bit related to Ginger J.

Golf course proof - sorry no other pictures turned out as it got dark fairly quickly and iphones don't do great photos in the twilight/moonlight! 

Not scared of the dark

The following morning, I opted to get up early and try her out in the indoor. She came right up to the gate to be caught, and happily stood to be groomed at the barn away from her friends. I actually got distracted chatting about and looking at another horse’s injury and forgot her for a bit and she just quietly waited all by herself.

Where did everyone go? She quietly stood peeking around that corner looking for us for almost half an hour. A bit of a novelty after my ADD Ginger mare.

As far as the ringwork went, she is green, green, green. The trails helped us because there is a path to follow - in the ring the greenness really comes to light. She has the right idea, but she’s very wiggly and everything is a bit start and stop – there’s no real rhythm there yet. She’s very smart and willing though. I opted to just walk/trot since there was a round pen set up at the end of the arena and I don’t think it would have been fair to ask her to canter a relatively small circle at this point. Her owner took some pics of me riding that I'm anxiously awaiting - it will be interesting to see how we look together.

Final thoughts: This is a pony I could have a lot of fun with! She’s very sensible and friendly too. My only reservations are that she’s much greener than I’d like and the whole size thing, of course. She feels great and had no trouble at all packing me all over the countryside, but I guess I’m just not used to pony size. She'll be 5 at the end of the month, so there's hope she might grow a teeny bit more - I'm not going to count on it, though!The green thing is not really what I wanted, but since she’s fine/safe right now to hop on and go pretty much anywhere it’s maybe something I can work with. Or maybe I could send her out for some more training while I'm working? I’m tempted because she’s otherwise perfect. Decisions are so hard – I want a do-it-all schoolmaster type to head out showing on and participate in all the fun club events with (like the buckskin mare in the previous post), but the reality is my budget is somewhat limited, so my choices when it comes to more experienced horses are limited as well. It’s tempting to take a bit of a chance on a young horse with the mind, but not the training, particularly as I feel we have good connection. We'll just be showing baby classes this fall...Still...I don't want to overdo it with the projects when Ginger still needs so much time. If you haven't noticed, I'm a little bit in love with the little mare, but I'm trying to be very responsible and weigh everything out carefully! I'm going to try to line up a second visit so G can meet her, but as things stand now, I'm very hopeful you'll be hearing a lot more about her in the future :)

Weekend Recap Part 1

I packed a lot of living into one 36 hr road trip, so I’m going to divide the weekend into two separate posts.
Saturday morning I was up somewhat early in order to make the 800km/500 mile drive to BC. ( I guess I really want to find another cob! Seriously, though, this is the farm I got Ginger from, so I trust their opinions and know they have some wonderful Sec Ds – it’s worth the trip) I was very much dreading the boredom of an 8 hour road trip on my own, but it was actually kind of nice. I’ve missed the mountains and forests more than I thought, and the Rockies are always gorgeous. It served as a much needed mental reboot for work – stuck in my little office all day it’s easy to forget that the work I’m doing is helping to protect some of the most beautiful places in the country.

On arrival, the first thing I noticed when I hopped out of my air conditioned truck was that it was hot outside – super hot, in fact. The daytime highs were around 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit). Yuck. We opted to wait for the evening when the weather would hopefully cool off rather than doing anything too strenuous. We found some others that wanted to trail ride with us later in the evening, which sounded perfect, and decided to wake up early the next morning for a second ride. We took some time to visit with the ponies and chat a little more about their temperaments and experience, which was nice. The farm owner is starting to downsize, so she had a couple more for sale than I originally thought. Even so,  the two ponies we decided would most suit my plans were the two we had originally talked about. While we waited for it to cool down, we chatted a bit about Ginger as well. I already know pretty much all I’m going to know about her history - since she came from another breeder who needed to rehome her the details prior to about 2 years old are a little unknown. Still, it was neat to trade Ginger stories! She’s always been the super kind but quirky girl she is today, and it was nice to hear everyone being so complimentary of how well she’s doing.

I'll have one in each color, please :)

 Anyways, on to the sale horses:

Option 1 is the lovely buckskin mare I took for a trail ride on my last visit.

Pretty girl

Option 2 is the adorable little bay mare who is young and green, but very laid back and easy going. I was told she’s the exact opposite of Ginger ;)

I’ll do a recap of the buckskin mare here, then a recap of the bay mare tomorrow in order to not have the longest blog post ever.
The buckskin mare is 14.1hh,10 years old, and has done a little bit of everything. Very experienced, and the go to for visitors to ride, as she’s very steady, but a little fun too. She’s also absolutely gorgeous. She’s put together so, so nicely and basically my dream horse. She’s priced a bit above what I’d like to spend, and a lot more than what I’d ideally like to pay for a second horse so I tried very hard not to get too attached. Since I’d already taken her out before and liked her, I opted to ride her out for our evening ride.

This picture cracks me up - the sun makes her butt look huge!

She hadn’t been out for a week or two, so was a tiny bit ‘up’ and looky, but we were riding on a fairly busy road, then through a rural area with lots of things going on (dogs, traffic, lawnmowers, other horses running up to visit). I’d actually have been surprised if she didn’t look at some of it! We got in a good trot, which was OK –I’m not a super fan of her trot, it feels short and pony like. Canter is incredible – powerful and carrying you forward without rushing. What a nice mare! Size wise, she felt great. Overall, though, there is just something missing for me.  I can’t put my finger on it since she’s gorgeous and nice to ride and has no issues in general. There just wasn’t really any connection there.

 The little bay mare and her trainer were on our ride as well, so we opted to trade horses about half an hour into our ride…

I Like Shopping

After last week, where I was basically worried about everything from being a pony squisher to my inability to choose the right horse and was ready to just not even try at all, you all probably wanted to give me a bit of a smack down. Because seriously, who complains about horse shopping? (Besides me!) 

So, good news : I've been channeling my inner 10 year old this week and am feeling a lot more positive about it all. It’s also helped that I got the first ‘official’ test ride out of the way and nothing crazy (besides baby pony attitude)happened. Also G is incredibly supportive and encouraging, and good at reminding me of all the reasons this is a good idea. (He’s also somewhat delusional about my riding abilities, but I’ll take it J )

This weekend, I’m venturing all the way back across the Rockies to see some more Welsh Cobs. They are all in the 14-14.1hh range, so similar to the one from last week and on the smaller side for what I’m used to.(Pony squishing worries not quite dealt with yet!) I’ve mentioned before I went from a normal, athletic build my whole life to “OMG what happened?” in a fairly short time frame. I made a gradual lifestyle change 3 years ago or so and am proud (but really embarrassed) to say I’ve lost almost 40 pounds since then. Ideally, I’d still like to lose another 15 or so. I’m well within the acceptable limits for the ponies I’m looking at (going with the max 20% rule for rider and tack), I just don’t quite feel it yet! As always height wise 14-14.2hh feels/looks perfect for a shortie like me, I’m just not completely confident about it yet, particularly when we’re adding jumping to the mix. Still, if a smaller cob is otherwise perfect, watching my weight is a small compromise (and something I will continue to do anyways). Embarrassing to put this all out there, but I think these are valid considerations.  

"Please don't squish me!"

I’ve lined up a 15.3hh warmblood mare to look at in a couple of weeks. I suspect she’ll be bigger than my short little legs would like, but again if she’s otherwise suitable I may just have to compromise and buy a bigger stepstool J She’s actually one G saw a video for and really liked, so we’ll go see her when he visits next. There are also a few Canadian horses at a farm nearby that look interesting. Canadians are a breed I like, with a lot of them being quite similar to a Welsh Cob or old fashioned Morgan. There are a couple at the lesson barn who are really cute all arounders, but maybe a teeny bit less athletic than what I’d ideally like.

No the farm I'm visiting, but nice horses! www.cherrycreekcanadians.ca

As always, I also have the wonderful Ginger at home to keep working away with, so if nothing suitable presents itself, we just go back with Plan A for the winter and you’ll see lots of trail riding posts. Not overly exciting for a blog, but still fun for me! I’m getting quite excited about it all and have been having trouble focusing on work these days. I may or may not have a countdown timer on my phone. You're welcome in advance for the following:

Have a fun weekend, everyone. I’ll be back on Monday with an update!