Keller is a horse at my current barn, and the kind of school horse everyone should have the pleasure of riding as their learn the finer points of horsemanship He is safe, but not easy. For an upper level rider, he can do the step and jump 2’6″ – 2’9″ with his special school horse version of flying changes but he can also step down for dead beginners to just jog politely around the arena. Basically, he breaks the OTTBs are crazy…
Something exciting happened this weekend. More exciting than Beezie and her Simon winning the World Cup. More exciting than announcing that I’m moving barns. More exciting than a new Ben & Jerry’s flavor. This is serious folks. Oh yes, I rode my horse. I will try to make this post as exciting as possible, but it was just as ordinary as if I had been riding him three times a week for all 2013. I originally planned on giving him…
I’ve been a bit vague and brooding about some things lately, but that’s because I try to keep a few rules firmly in place with my blog: don’t write something I wouldn’t say out loud to anyone, and don’t let my blog be the first place someone finds info about me or my horse that they should have known earlier. That being said, everything is official and the right people know… so I can finally say that I’m moving Simon…
True confession here – I’m not big into eventing. I know it’s intense and hard and a huge adrenaline rush, but it’s not really a sport for me. I can’t get over how terrifying cross country looks, and I’m not a big fan of watching eventing dressage or show jumping. That being said, everyone has Rolex fever right now… and I certainly have my favorite pair to win. Why I want Becky Holder & Can’t Fire Me to take it all!…
On Monday, I sent my vet videos of Simon to see what our next level of work should be. We had been lunging at the trot for 2-4 minutes each direction. She said he looked “not too bad!” and to bump up the lunging this week to see what he felt like doing and could tolerate. So yesterday when I went out to see him, we did 6 minutes of trotting each direction and one lap of canter on his…
OTTBs can make excellent hunter/jumpers, but we usually hear about them being stars in eventing – especially in the blogging world. That’s part of what makes L. Williams’ Carlos at Viva Carlos so special. He’s an opinionated OTTB that has success in the hunter, jumper, and equitation ring and egads of personality to boot! What is his/her registered name? Ugh.. do I have to. It’s so ugly… Senor Prospector D: Lineage? His family tree is full of assholes.. Mr. Prospector…
Optimism is a funny thing, and I daresay I’m feeling optimistic. Last weekend I really just did not want my horse to die. It sounds dramatic, but that was the goal. This weekend I felt myself looking at the state of things and thinking “I wonder if I’m ok to bump his grain back up to normal” and “I bet schooling changes will come easier now that I know to maintain his hocks properly.” After I took the last poultice…
A shared fear of Ikea meatballs isn’t the only thing Simon and I have in common… We’re both tattooed! While he went for the uber conservative “only shows it when he’s feeling frisky” look, mine is a bit more out in the open – on the top of my left foot. I choose my left foot because my left side has always been my strongest side, and his too coincidentally. That’s my only tattoo, but I would love to get…