2014 Show Year, thats a wrap

    I hate doing show year wrap-ups because it remind me that winter is here. I hate cold. I am a east coaster at heart and extreme weather messes me up.

ANYWAY, I started the show year off at Penny Oaks. We got a dressage score of 45. What I remember was that it was cold,windy and generally a nasty event to be at. Cross country was okay, one refusal and 15.60 time penalties, I think we went way fast, i don't remember. And we had a double clear stadium round.

Always a grouchy face in dressage 

WEEEEEEEEEEE 

 Next up IEA dressage rocked, second after it! First time ever!!! Stadium sucked, not even funny, my horse had a bloody mental breakdown and I couldn't do ANYTHING about it. I will upload the video, its horrible, XC we got eliminated because I forgot the bank up turn around back down combo. I am a reeaaalllyyy bad eventer 

After IEA we battled mystery NQRness, had a month basically off, lameness exam and round of adequan later a old tendon injury had arthritis setting in. Back into work and onto Team Challenge

TC was uneventful just rocked it outt!!

What are this

Its been raining for like a month now. Okay mayybbeee an exaggeration. But seriously the mud is up to my ankles, my GREY pony is a weird buckskin color.

I haven't started packing yet. I AM FREAKING OUT!! I am the worst packer ever

                                                              Pretty valid in my case. 

Im pretty darn excited for TC, get to meet the awesomesauce Monica as she is catch riding for Amy and Steady.  Live scoring should be here, not sure though on the workingness of the link

Probably should go pack, much stress

2pointober

It's 2pointober time!!! Thanks to Viva Carlos and Equestrian at Hart for co-hosting this year!
My baseline was 8:55 or 9min 

Summer Wrap up

    Welll, my summer didn't go exactly as planned. If you are friends with me on facebook, you know I was offered a WS\BM position in Maryland. All I had to do was organize everything to move out there, all from my own pocket. Well I didn't move, after month and months (literally emailed hundreds of people\companies) looking for a room to rent or small apartment and average room being 500$+ I just plain couldn't afford it. It really sucks and I'm still uber upset about it because I like the trainer and barn, it seemed like the PERFECT situation for me at the moment.
     Earlier this spring after Rhyme kept coming out NQR we had a vet come out,looked at him, found nothing but after we sent him a video of one of his bad days Rhyme was said to have a weak stifle. This is not a soundness problem, this is a strength problem. Rx riding, lots of transitions and hills. So far a complete change in him and he is doing picture perfect.
    Super Kid is doing a ton better after we decided to go with Adequan, yes I cried writing that check, yes I pay for my horses. We are going to Team Challenge in the IEA team Three Horses and a Pony.
Im going to do a better job at blogging more. And getting more pictures

Contest time

The awesome Cob Jockey has a happy 100th followers contest! Her blogs are the bomb.com and her ponies and puppies are adorable! Enter here! 

PSA

This is a public service announcement,,, I haven't had one comment since March, this makes me sad :( I don't know what to ramble on about if I'm not getting feedback of some kind. Commenthoness needs her fix. So does my inner tackho but can't do anything about that! Will have a HUGE announcemt coming soon. Involving Unicorn pony, baby event pony and I for sure,, maybe Mr.Jumping Jack Flash (my cat, I dont have a dog)

I have a PONY FOR SALE!

    Lady Farah Bask is a 14.1 Morab mare who has started training in eventing, h\j, and dressage. She has been re-trained using correct methods with time spent on correct movement and bend and just started jumping beginning of June. Would make a gutsy kid a wonderful mount for Pony Club, or a small adult a wonderful all around mount. I am riding her in the photo, and at 5'5" I still look quite right for her. Given some more time and training she would make a wonderful childrens hunter mount with more miles under saddle. Asking 3,900$ ONO or negotiable but price will change with training and showing. Special pricing to show homes and professionals
WILL BE ADDING PHOTO'S REGULARLY on her facebook album here. 
She has impressive Arabian bloodlines with Bask++ and other prominent Polish lines, her pedigree can be found at here

and a third video 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnwIamfOJ_o

Spring Show round-up

 I've been out of blogger land for a bit. I have been so busy!!! Super Kid is doing fine, a mystery soreness has left training on hold, sucks bro. She did so well at our two spring shows. IEA got our best dressage score ever a 35% !!! So excited about that, we have been working so hard on dressage and it finally paid off!! BUTTT  like Bad Eventer I misses two xc jumps in my excitement over jumping the ditch (i hate ditches) so we where TE, darn! Its okay, total learning experience.

Thank you CH Photography

We are done showing right now. SK came up short in a hind leg and has been on vacation until I can get monies to pay for a vet. She's still her happy, peppy self just something's not right. Rhyme has decided to have freakish shoulders and since he's been in constant work he's gotten buff and now we have zero saddles that fit him, ON TOP OF ALL THAT both my schooling boot AND show boots zippers have broken. So I haven't been riding unless it is bareback and thats sketchy on baby warmbloods. There is a faint light at the end of the tunnel, with a possible re-location on the distant horizon.
Here's an amazing song that has kept me looking up these past few months

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBatuRGZAmA&feature=kp

Coming Soon

IEA wrap-up, where pony has a mental breakdown and then so do I, We rock out dressage and get our best score to date then have a giant fail fest at anything jumping.

So cute,so fat,so sassy and jumps, GAHH 

Penny Oaks

 We ended up in 11th!!! Huge accomplishment for us, just outside the ribbons. Warm-up for dressage was awesome but we lost it as soon as we got in the ring, dressage score put us in 14th.

Before Stadium,my wonderful coach Robert and his adorable daughters

Cross country, the course was easy, vary straight forward, lots of galloping space. We suited up and sprayed our new decorations on (a star and arrow on her hindquarters) Pony warmed up nicely and was ready to go. As we are walking to the start box somebody has a fall at the first jump, greaat just was my nerves needed, she was fine and we wait for the person in front of us to go. They had a refusal every single jump, it was a young horse I believe so I didn't want to pass and have it freak out. Even though I trotted a lot of the course we still had good time and only had one refusal (sunrise jump if you've ever been to the HHP, thank goodness they painted over it) 

            We finished the event right outside the ribbons, 11th. 

We have been dealing with the dreaded S word(stiffness) for a week now. I blame the insane weather, it has been raining and the ground soft until this week, the temp. skyrocketed , muggy\buggy, and the ground turned to cement. She is 15 so I knew in the back of my mind we would start dealing with a little arthritis but its honestly a godsend that she's not full blown crippled like Arrow who we couldn't even ride until we finally got Adaquan i.m into him, now he is 100%. So sometime this summer I will have the vet come out and take a look at her legs. The one that is particularly bothering her is the one where there is an old tendon injury, right hind fetlock. Rhyme is going, well. We haven't had any hip issues and are restarting in serious training. Including jumping, we free jumped him and he has springs, big fancy springs that only come out when he has to actually jump aka above 2'8 (we went up to 3'4 i think) He's so cute.

    In other news I have a training pony

Look at my face

So cute

I had her a week and she lost about 50lbs, she's chunkyyy

Welcome to fat pony bootcamp Lady Farah Bask, 10yr old Morgan\ Arab mare about 14.2h . She came about 200lbs overweight, with a ponytude. She is now about 100lbs down and as nice as a puppy but still sassy. Her owners are downsizing to two equines and she needed a job. Farah will make a FANTASTIC young adult or small adult all around horse. She is excelling in basic dressage and lunging over small cross-rails, she will make a great eventer once she gets that experience under her belt. She will need someone who wont be afraid to get after her when she's snotty. I'll be putting an ad out for her once she's lost about 100 more pounds, she's wearing a x-wide gullet on her saddle right now, plus a crupper because of the zero withers.  

Heartland (Picture heavy)

Rhyme rocked around heartland like a boss, for his first show he did AMAZING! We ended up in 6th in our GAG classs, rock on!!!

So fly

Dressage Skillzzz

Don't mind us, just doing a w\t test 

Dem ears

Your small jumps don't impress me mam 

I love my baby warmblood! He turned six April 20th so we are officially big kids now. Hopefully I will be taking him to Bea Hive Ranch to school some cross country so we can rock Leg-Up

I need a lepurchan, no seriously

    Over the winter I crashed the car my mom and I share, 07' Focus, I hit black ice and spun landing in a ditch (I knew to never trust one). Luckily the car wasn't broken that bad, new radiator, hose thingy, bumper and a frame straightening from hitting the snow so hard and we were okay. Money goodbye. Next thing I know one day Im driving the truck home from school and I smell something like a hot engine, assuming it was the vehicle in front of me think nothing of it, note to tell my mom later. Next freaking morning go to put it in reverse, guess what NO REVERSE. Take it in, transmission is out, well $$$$$ later new transmission is installed and should be done tomorrow morning.  Which is a miracle because we are leaving for Heartland Friday evening, I have spent this whole week freaking out because I thought we wouldn't be able to go to this show. My family needs some luck :P
Show schedule so far is
Heartland CT April 19th- GAG on Rhyme
Penny Oaks HT May 2-3- BN on Super Kid
IEA HT May 30-June 1(?)- BN or MAYBE Novice

Final countdown

     I am in the final stretch of high school. graduation is May 30th. I guess you can say that it is a huge relief to be done with it but then again its a big step. I don't want the best friends I have now move away and we never speak again. I love my friends and even though sometimes I'm sure we get on each others nerves I wouldn't change them. I am going to be glad to not have that constant stress on my life! It's a true honest statement that testing children from a young age up till high school with standardized test like ISTEP+, ECA(end-of-course assessment) has a bad impact on a students life. I am one of those kids that never did well in a part of the test, it is ALWAYS math. I am so bad at math its not even funny, but since sixth grade I've been in remedial classes for math, they never did a thing. I never passed the ISTEP math portion and it took me three tries to pass the ECA Algebra 1 test. English on the other hand I've always done really well in.I have generalized testing disorder which basically means that I freak out or possibly have panic attacks while testing.
ENOUGH about my school life. Arrow is being started on Adequan i.m as of 4-9-2014 and will be on the first dosing, a shot every four days, etc. Hopefully this works, he really is talented and my mom has done really well with his training, crossing fingers and toes!!! Rhyme showed no lameness and had zero inflammation today and so we couldn't really have the vet diagnose something on him. So back into work we go with Heartland CT the 19th of April. Two weeks(?) or so is Penny Oaks which I'm hoping to go to.
    Disclaimmer
I pay for all my shows except heartland out of my own money which I work two part-time jobs for. I have never been handed anything nor ever want to be. I love working hard and getting rewarded for it somehow. Whether it be a good grade, better dressage score, finishing on my dressage score there is always a take home message

Super Kid the other day warming up before our ride. She was amazing, and is looking fantastic, dressage wise we are ready for Penny Oaks, conditioning and jumping we shill have some work to do.
 Here's the video and tell me what you think!

Now don't get me wrong

    I love my baby horse Rhyme, but he is hard to ride. He is a warmblood after all, but he has the best and worst things about his breeding.
Now I have had Welsh cobs or ponies my whole life, they come with their own set of quirks. For example they have a neck that can periscope, because their neck and heads are set up on the top of their shoulders they have a talent of when they get excited or hear something strange to pull their heads up as HIGH AS POSSIBLE.

    I have been hit in the mouth more than once by somebody doing this. Since both WB and cobs are carrige based horses they have a amazing talent of collecting, 

The majority of the time that I ride Super Kid and Rhyme achieving that long and low status, or our happy place. 

Its a interesting topic, thoughts? I usually warm up, some collected work, decompress with stretchy work then switch back then end long and low. No matter if I'm doing jumping,dressage,conditioning or whatever I always warm up like this. Super Kid is best at getting right to the stretchy work, whereas Rhyme you have to convince that it is a good idea and he will feel better after. He is slowly getting better at this, he just naturally compresses VARY well and its hard to stretch out 

Conformation Hit: Hunter\Jumpers

I know a few  H\J, where I live in Indiana h\j are not around, unless you go further toward Indianapolis (unless its my buddies over at Red Pegasus Ranch)  

I picked QH this time, now here's my disclaimer, I know there are good and bad sires in EVER breed. I am looking at the sire and offspring and giving my general opinion about what I think about the horse)   

First stallion: Indian Artbeat- 17.2h black english only 

What I see: I see that for a QH he is built decently. However I do see that he is over at the knee, by a lot. I'm not entirely sure whats going on with his back feet, they are vary upright with awkward angles. I don't mind his HQ, they are okay but his hocks are places behind by a bit.Over all he will have problems but he can jump

 Second: Iron Age AQHA stallion 16.2?

What I see: He has a decent front end and is kinda uphill, but his back end is not good, although that might be how they set him up. The angles are vary acute. 

Foal from Google Images. I have a huge idea that the picture was taken on the side of a hill. So given that the legs are all vary squared up under them. It does have a nice head though. 

Next one will be done sometime in the next week. Comment what your opinions are of these horses, if you agree or disagree.

When It's Cold I'm Not Happy

   Last week it was warm, like 40's and low 50's warm, the ground was thawed, the snow was gone, I was HAPPY. Now we are back to low 20's and below, I am NOT happy about this!!!! I have a knee and shoulder issue so when its this cold they cramp up and it sucks. I just want to ride my ponies :(
 I rode all last week so I'm not super worried about it,I'm just going crazy. Now I know some people are like "But you have an indoor arena!" Dear people, its got three windows and no door. ALL WIND COMES IN! Plus Super Kid can't deal with being in that indoor, this is the only one and I'm guessing its because
its small and she feels closed in, but we will trot the whole time and still be wired about being in there, its incredibly irritating.

Thanks Bobby for the new saddle pad!

 This is a  about the cold post, nothing new is happening, just the same winter cold and stiffness. On the plus side I have decided to definitely take Rhyme to Heartland CT. Plus my friend who does H\J is thinking about coming to the dark side and doing some eventing so she is taking her baby Indy, so I'll get her to take pictures of Rhymeykinz first big fancy event horse show

                  

Lets get this party started!!!

    Lets talk about this show seasons instead of this nasty winter stuff. Lets get one thing out there, I like snow until New Years, after that I'm done with it. I have a ton planned for this year, I am getting a re-train\resale project Morab who will hopefully be sold by fall at the latest, as well as selling Irmingarda to be a childs hunter, because why not?
   Of course lets not forget about the subjects of this blog Super Kid and Rhyme!!!

being a good horse

Before she took off, psycho

   Anywayyy,,, my game plan this year is for Super Kid to go to Penny Oaks and IEA definitely,, possibly Greater Dayton and some at the KHP, we will continue our fitness rides and get as fit as possible. Continue with our lessons with Dom dressage and jumping, hopefully cross country schooling because I have actually never gone xc schooling before. I need to start working out to be at the top of my game for this spring, she's still pretty fit, for not doing much over the winter. As soon as possible start jump schooling over small stuff, get our basics DOWN! Work on our dressage skillz ( I have that downloaded onto my phone, pre-dressage warm-up, I think YES!)
   Rhyme is going to Heartland CT which will be his first show, nice and calm (hopefully) I took a lesson on him and it didn't go to great, he was nervous, neighing, paying zero attention, just being a jerk and finished it off by getting his tongue over the bit which he has never done. So he will be going MANY places, just learning that the traveling this is okay. He's growing and maturing still so I give him a little leeway in being immature but he knows where the line is and if he crosses it he's in trouble.
 So lets all look forward to this warm weather, keep riding and, go eventing!

Winter,nobody likes you go away

    I have nothing to blog about, Its been in the lower 20's clear down to negative 30 with wind chill regularly this winter. That weather is not suitable for riding equines. My indoor isn't all the way closed in, has three huge windows and a front door. All those holes don't have shutters or doors so its cold and drafty when its miserable out.  ITS JUST NOT FUN!!! Also my senior pictures will take place of new pony pictures for a bit, Thanks to Jeremy and Vickie Photography!!!!

27 Questians when its bloody cold out

1. Favorite thing about riding? 
Everything, I seriously would be crazy or addicted to something without my ponies. I love everything about riding.

2. Green horse or trained horse
Both

3. Have you ever wanted to quit riding? 
Yes. 

4. Do you prefer to ride inside or outside?
Outside,Super Kid doesn't do well indoors and usually has a mental breakdown

5. How many times a week do you ride?
Five to six depending on things

6. Have you ever fallen off at a show? How? 
Nope, came really close but never actually (knock on wood)

7. Do you have a private or group lesson?
Honestly I have no preference. 

8. In your opinion does it make you less of a rider if you don't own a horse? 
Not at all. What makes you a good rider is the willingness to learn and change how you do things. If you aren't willing to take criticism and learn then you are a bad rider. No matter what level you ride at there are always things you can take away or improve about yourself. It doesn't matter if own yours own horse.

9. Do you plan on having horses in your life, for the rest of your life?
Yes without a doubt.

10. If you could ride any famous horse (dead or alive) who would it be?
Teddy O'Conner, Erin Go Bragh, many others

11. Does winning ribbons matter to you? 
 Nope,

12. Worst riding experience?
Honestly, It could be my old trainer telling me that I didn't deserve my pony and I was letting everybody down. Not nice 

13. Describe a time when you wanted another equestrian to fail at something -- 

I haven't, i'm a nice person

14. Describe the proudest or happiest moment you can think of in your riding career –
The the last couple lessons I had in PA, you could feel the difference in both Super Kid and I.
 
15. Do you think any disciplines are cruel? Which one(s) and why?

Anytime when you put winning in front of the horses well being 

16. Your worst riding habit?
At shows I have have a habbit of having my hands way to low, like side reins, and I move my hands a lot

17. When you’re in the show ring, what’s going through your mind? 
Don't mess up, oh crap, don't mess up.

18. If you owned a barn, would you try for a laid back casual atmosphere, or a professional fast paced one? 
I would be in the middle somewhere

19. I give you a $2,000 gift card to your favorite tack store/online retailer, what do you buy? 
Buy a Southern Stars eventing saddle

20. You’re riding in an arena at home with several other riders, and one of them obviously doesn't know the rules of the ring, even though they’re posted. The others are clearly annoyed, would you do anything? 
Take them aside later and quietly explain them to the people

21. Worst fear riding?
Looking like an idiot, messing up, hurting my horse

22. How old do you imagine you’ll be when you stop riding, and what’s the cause?
I never will

23. If you could own any number of horses, would they all be the same discipline or a mix?
Sport horses all the way
24. Favorite colors for your horse?
In case you haven't noticed it, its blue

25. Favorite tack brand?
Umm anything that hold up

26. If given the opportunity would you breeze a race horse?

Yes,

27. Three ‘You know you’re an equestrian when…’When you are doing vocab for a class and one of the words is wolf something and you type it into the dictionary all Woof

You miss you friends graduation because your at a horse show

You have to schedule work around your horse schedule

zoommyy