Gimmicks. I hate gimmicks. Specifically, training gadgets to get a horse’s head down. I hate it because I feel like I lived it, although no one would have ever accused me of rollkur or tying my horse’s head in the stall or anything like that. German martingale? Used it. Draw reins? Used them. Different bits? Oh sure. I never abused my horse, but I am guilty as charged for using training gadgets improperly before I was taught properly to ride leg to…
Had a good lesson last night. I rode Winston again, the small but angry OTTB. My trainer gave me some more insight to his extreme head tossing and aversion to contact, so we worked on him moving just off my leg and keeping my hands low and quiet. Once he trusts his rider to not rip his face off, he actually settles down quite nicely for cross rails and 2′ type stuff. I had an enjoyable ride, and want to…
My blog got severely hacked on Friday night, so it’s been pretty interesting around here. I had to delete a ton of plugins and stuff, and it’s not 100% up to snuff yet. There’s no security risk for any visitors though, so don’t worry about that. I’ve also installed a bunch of security stuff to WordPress, which means it shouldn’t be happening again. Ah, the life and fun times of a web designer. Now today’s challenge might as well be…
Rode a new school horse at the barn last night. He was owned by one of our riders for several years, but that rider decided to lease a nicer jumper and couldn’t have both… so Winston, a ~6 y/o OTTB is owned by my trainer now. He was actually very good for me to ride, because he is completely opposite Simon. Very behind my leg, short strided, and upsidown. Acts like he’s never been ridden leg to hand, and severe…
Productive weekends have not been my strong suit lately. For whatever reason, I’m overcome with the need to cocoon myself in my house and have lots of me time. Usually I need quiet/me time for a few days out of the month, but lately I can’t stop craving it. Not sure what’s up – maybe just the winter blues. On Saturday I made it out to the barn to see Simon and have a make-up lesson from Monday. I rode…
I grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina and while it is certainly more horsey than many parts of the US, a culturally epicenter for hunter/jumpers… it is not. We do have some nice barns and many levels of local shows, and a handful of AA shows each year. Of those rare local AA shows, by far my favorite is the Duke Children’s Benefit Horse Show. Every year in November, the big deal in Raleigh is to go to the Duke…
I’m not good with really big changes in life. I’m kind of the person that once I get settled, it’s hard for me to leave even if I know something else better could get along. That being said, making the decision to move from Boston, MA to Austin, TX was a hard one. My move from NC to MA to work at SmartPak hadn’t gone nearly as well as I hoped, and I thought that another big move would be…
Let me start off by saying that I wish we were one of those fancy barns that had a vacuum. Oh, I long for a vacuum. I have briefly considered shop vaccing my horse… but that seemed like a poor idea. Since I am horse vacuumless, my grooming routine is a formular that goes as follows. Full grooming – minutes I arrived late at the barn – amount of winter coat – temperature outside = full grooming routine Full Grooming…