Another Year Gone By

2011 is just around the corner... just over 8 hours away now.

So. I picked out some photos that showcase my accomplishments through this year. These are in absolutely no special order. :)

Bubba and I at fair. I had never jumped 3 feet before, but we ended up doing three classes, all including this rather large 3 foot oxer. Was I nervous out of my mind? Absolutely (just ask Bethany, who took this photo). Did I have a blast? Absolutely. Do I regret it? Absolutely not. I'm always going to look back and think the first sizable jump I did was on Bubba. That said, I think that was (and will be) the last time Bubba jumped so high... I'm so honored that I had the opportunity to enjoy  him.

Ladd and I!!! Our first show. What a blast! He really blew me out of the water. We didn't place in our first class out of four, but the next three were all blues. He's really that awesome :D.

I'm looking forward to showing the big guy at fair this coming year!!

I did two schoolings with Daisy this year, plus a cross country lesson at camp in August. This photo is from the October schooling. I LOVE. SCHOOLINGS. My goal for the year was to do an event. We didn't accomplish that, but I honestly don't really care. I will keep doing schoolings, and that's good enough for me, whether we ever really event or not.

County fair western day (and Gymkhana and Mounted Games) with Daisy! We recieved western high point for the day for the senior division (and High Point award on Bubba for English day...and overall senior high point division trophy!). Looking back, I remember our first class that day was horrible. We won 2nd, but I totally felt like as an individual pair, we didn't deserve it. She did everything she had to do, but we weren't clicking. We ended up spending a good amount of time in the warm up ring afterward getting the focus back on me. The rest of the day we shined for real :) 

We did our first western reining pattern, very impromptu. We were disqualified for a minor error in the pattern that I didn't even notice, but I was glad I did it, and I definitely want to do it again this coming year.

More jumping Bubba pics! This one was from the schooling period. Notice I jump everything off center? Yup. I treated it all like an eventer would have...little did I realize it was judged like the hunters. I'm not complaining, we still got two seconds :)

I hadn't really noticed this picture until picking through the CD today. By the end of western day, I was just plain happy, and smiling like a dope :P. We did the versatility class, and Daisy was found the most versatile out of 20 horses. That's m'girl.

I don't judge everything in awards...I'm obviously thrilled with individual accomplishments as well, it's just easier to explain in saying what we won, because...well, they reflect what we can do.

Anyway, I swam with Daisy this year! Three times to be exact. The first time (picture below) landed us with a large article on the front page of two different papers. That was pretty awesome for me because since I'm not on any sports teams, I would normally not be in the paper... but we're covered for life with that article, I think.

And the second time we swam in the lake... we really truly swam. She's the lock-ness. :)

I had some goals for this year. I didn't accomplish them all...but lets just take a look.

This is what my goals were for this year, per my last year's New Year's post:

1. Skills: Turn on the hindquarter and forehand, hopefully flying lead changes.(<--We can do turns on the forehands just fine now. hindquarters still confuse her; she won't plant her one hand for the complete circle. Any tips on that? We worked a lot on flying lead changes, and she still won't get them on a straight away, but she'll do them on a figure eight)

2. Events: Eventing. More schoolings, lessons, boarding, jumping, 3 phase eventing...that will be *quite* an experience. But I'm up for it, and I'm pretty sure Daisy is, too.(<-- a) I sound incredibly stupid the way I wrote this and b) we didn't accomplish it. We had the schoolings, lessons, boarding, jumping down, but no eventing. But as I said above...I've come to a point where I know whether or not I event does not determine if we're successful or not).

3. Personally improve in the english riding department :P and work with Daisy to improve dressage. (<--Yes! And still in progress. We got somewhere at camp with our lessons and dressage, and I truly realized at camp that lessons can be fun. So we called a different instructor, and are waiting on a phone call back. So...hopefully we'll have some regular lessons soon)

4. Do incredibly at county fair, SENIOR level this year...but we'll see. :P (<-- Bingo, bingo, BINGO. First year in senior and Bubba, Daisy, and I made it to overall senior high point. A little bird told me that certain people resent me because I came in with Bubba the ex Prelim horse, but you know what...I was on my own pony the rest of the week, and we still got western day high point. So no excuses )

5. Excel at everything *despite* (because certain people think it's a bad thing) being barefoot. Advance my barefoot knowledge and be able to show others the benefits. (<--Just today Daisy and I were out on the road and we were flying across gravel. She doesn't even attempt to avoid it. There's the proof. Daisy is completely happy barefoot. Whats more, I did a presentation for 4H on natural trimming in February,  and have another one coming this February. )

So I didn't accomplish all my goals. Not for lack of effort though.

Goals for Two Thousand Eleven..oh goodness. Looking back, I'm not really sure what to say. I accomplished so much more than I thought I would this year already, that I could say anything really...  But here are some general goals. 

1. Teach Daisy to truly drive...a cart. Obtain this goal by doing a lot of bomb-proof training style stuff.
2. Take regular lessons! For dressage. 
3. More trail trials...GET TO A HUNTERPACE AGAIN THIS YEAR!
4. Saying this is sort of far fetched, but seeing as how anything is possible considering I'm actually teaching my horse to drive now....try team penning! 
5. Swim with Daisy some more. 
6. Haha...do what I can to keep Daisy from colicing! Which, I've never mentioned it, but....this fall was Daisy didn't colic AT ALL! I didn't want to jinx it, so I didn't say anything all fall, but it got later and later and...no colic! I'm not sure what did it, but I changed a few things this year. She had a selenium block that she's never had before because I read that selenium deficiency can cause colic, she was on ACV every morning and evening instead of probios, I cut her off grazing earlier this year than last year. 
7. Celebrate our 4th year together (wow...time flies!) and have a blast next show season. :)

Pretty humble goals this year...haha. I've done so much with her now, my goals are dwindling! 

In any case, the New Year is 62 minutes away...HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Picture Catch-Up & Schooling Details

 The cross country schooling on Monday went absolutely great. Daisy was so good. She only truly refused 1 of the 12 jumps. There were two other jumps that made her balk, but she just slowed for a second, and then jumped it anyway, though messily. We jumped mostly just beginner novice jumps; a couple jumps were intro size. I was so proud of her! Jean was there on Ladd and Daisy jumped the same jumps he did, save for the one white fence up there in the first picture :)

 I included these pictures because they weren't included in the video in the last post.

Doesn't Daisy look great?

 The bank jump was great. I was weary about doing it once I saw it--it's a 2'5" bank jump up. Karin (the instructor) insisted I do it though and that Daisy could handle it.

 She was right :) 

At first, Daisy cantered up and then stopped in front of it. She was surprised; she was expecting a jump, not that! Once she had a look at it, she jumped it no problem the second time. And let me tell you-it was amazing! So very cool. It's not really jumping-it's gliding. 

The picture above in the new heading shows us going up the bank :)

 Jean also got me these pictures from our lake swim in early September, when I first truly swam Daisy in the lake. (See the post here: http://ridingdaisy.blogspot.com/2010/09/swimming-trailing-upcoming-showing.html)

 These pictures make me laugh out loud, remembering. Doesn't she look like the Loch Ness Monster in the picture above? haha

 It was so fun taking her in the water that day. I had to hold on so tight. I almost slid off a few times.

What a special pony I have. So strange to think that when I got her, my plan was to trail ride and do nothing else. Showing never even entered my mind. And here we are...

-Western shows

-Barrel racing

-English Shows

-Trail Trials

-Swimming

-Hunterpaces

-Cross Country Schoolings

-Trail riding.

What else shall we conquer? :)

Cross Country Schooling Video

 

My Schooling Video! Details soon...hopefully...all you really need to know is that a) It was awesome and b) the bank jump was 2.5 feet and AWESOME. :D

Ahhh...That Time of Year Again

 Almost exactly (to the day) a year ago I went to my first cross country schooling with Daisy. It was a complete and total blast. I still count it as the best day of my life ;)...besides the day I got Daisy. 

Here's the video from that day (and...I apologize for all the spelling errors...they are truly typos...I watched the video a ton of times before I noticed :P now it bothers me):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSDcW7jVg10

And so...on Monday...a year since our first schooling, we are....DOING ANOTHER ONE! 

I'm psyched. :) Truly. 

We're doing beginner novice height. Mmmm hm. :)

My only decision to make right now is....snaffle or kimberwicke?

I'm leaning towards kimberwicke. Hate to switch it out though...

Until later :),

Random Ramblings

I don't have anything new to report, but I feel like posting...

I thought about posting pictures of Daisy and I at fair..buuuut...I'm just going to post one. I posted a lot of photos on my facebook and I don't feel it's necessary to post them here too. I am under the impression that people don't care that much.
This one is of Daisy and I during the reining pattern...I'm thinking of actually teaching her to do good rollbacks and spins this winter. May be fun! If I recall correctly, her mom went to state for reining quite a few times...maybe she has it in her ;)

Notice me, the loser, was so worried about the pattern and such that I forgot to pull the chaps down for that class :P

I did a spider weave pattern with her mane that day ("spider weave pattern"...is there a real official name for it? :P), used 57 rubber bands (one more then 2009 :P) and got a lot of compliments...and a lot of kids stopping and pointing "LOOK AT THAT HORSE'S HAIR!" like they thought it came that way. So cute :) It actually lay flat this year. Loved it.

Other news...I've been looking into Tipperary jump vests, but they were all super expensive ($150-$200). I put an ad on craigslist in the "items wanted" section for a vest for up to $80 or cheaper. I received the phone number of a lady 20 minutes away who has a used clothing and tack shop (equestrian clothing) and had a few vests. I went yesterday (she's only open 4 days a month... :P) and she had two vests available: a flexrider one (which looks dorky, but I would have taken it if I had to) and a tipperary that just came in the day before. The tipperary fit! And, as a bonus, it's red with black trim! Red is our club color, and one of the combos I thought of doing for cross country *some day*, and it's sort of ironic that the trim is black because Jean always does XC in black and red..pretty cool. :) I love it.

Otherwise, camp is one week from today (!!!) and I might be doing a schooling with Jean on Wednesday! (!!!!!!!!!!!!!) :)
I'm pretty excited. Daisy's such a good girl :))
I've been using the boots...without the power straps. (I put them on, but the boots were pretty much impossible to get on with the power straps, and even WORSE to get off...I felt like I was gonna pull her hoof off altogether!) I did 2 pretty serious road rides with them, and I love them. Daisy loves them too. She steps much more confidently, and she feels better too...like she uses her body more. Pretty neat.

The horse flies are back again (started on the 1st of August. You think they understand calenders?). I always say they come in August, and here they are. They are vicious beyond belief...I put Daisy's fly sheet on, but they are relentless on her exposed neck. The only good thing is that they are super easy to kill. :P

I received my school schedule in the mail. *Shudder*.... as of tomorrow...one month left. That's a lot though! A WHOLE MONTH! :)...but yeah. It's goin' down soon.
ANNDDD! I registered to do a trail trial in our area (Like ACTHA but not) and I'm looking into doing a hunterpace in September too. I'm happy not eventing as long as I still get to play around cross country. I don't need stadium and dressage :P Not now, anyway. :)

And so...3 days to schooling, hopefully....7 to camp.

Until my next post,

XC Schooling & An Old Friend

The schooling was a lot of fun! The picture above is from our group.
Left to right: Lina on Millie, Oliver on Phoenix, Me on Daisy, and Katie on Allie.
(Picture by Lina's dad)

We stuck to the small intro jumps this time...which was sorta boring, but I think it was good; Karen said since Daisy's not used to jumping yet this season we should take it slow. She was pretty tired out by the end so it's probably good we didn't do more than we did. There were about 10 jumps I think. As she did in October, Daisy tried to get out of jumping the first two jumps, but once I forced her to do them, she gave up and NEVER ONCE refused! It was awesome! :) I was so proud of her. We even did our first bank jump. All of the horses but Daisy stopped in front of it before they'd go up; Daisy just took it "in stride" (hehe) :). It turned out to be a different course than from the links I posted :( the schooling for that course is this week Wednesday...I wish I could say I was going (because we may do an intro event there late in the season so it'd be great to school it) but with all my schoolwork, and money, and such...I don't think it will happen.

Bank jump below:

Jean took pictures and filmed the entire course again but she can't get her camera to work on her PC currently...hopefully I'll have pictures soon. The above picture is just of a still of a video. I do have all the videos because it was my camcorder, I'm just waiting for her pictures to be able to put together a video like last time. :)

In the meantime, I made this lame little movie....used pictures and put them together. I just thought it was cool to see how her body moves as she jumps.

And now! Drumroll....I visited Patchy on Thursday! The last time I saw him was fall of 2006. My mom surprised me after school and said we were going there. It was so cool. So many of the horses I learned to ride on were still there; including my Patchy boy. It was so so great to see him; my mom got a photo with my cell.

What a sweet little pony....it's funny though....he's SO much shorter than I remembered! :) I'm really glad I got to see him and be assured that he's still there and safe :)

The pleasure show last Sunday had a date change to tomorrow (forgot to mention that). So, our official "first show" is FINALLY tomorrow! Just crossing our fingers and saying prayers that it doesn't get canceled due to rain.

Parade and Upcoming Cross Country Schooling

Quick post!

The parade on Bubba yesterday went really really well. Bubba could have had a great career as a police horse. Nothing at all bothered him; he was amazing with everything-noise, people cheering, clapping, balloons, candy flying, motorcycles, bands, firetrucks, etc. We ended in my old Elementary school yard where the trailers had been brought too and it was so cool; all those recess wishes where I wished I had a horse to ride around came true; I got to canter Bubba around the school yard. It was pretty awesome :)

AND TOMORROW! I'm going to a schooling! I'm beyond excited; I didn't think I could go, but I did work ahead of time tonight and I'll be able to go!!! :) It'll be a squeeze with school work, but...it'll be so worth it. You wanna see the jumps I'll be doing? This is the intro course. I didn't do the intro course at the last schooling, but who knows what tomorrow will bring...we'll see. And this is the beginner novice course. That's what I'm expecting we'll do, but again, I'm happy with either :) it should be loads of fun. We get to try our first water crossing, and a bank!
Oliver, Jean's son is coming, and so is Katie from the last schooling, and an old friend of mine Lina. :)
Katie will be trailering Daisy, instead of Jean...which will be a first. Daisy's only been on Jean's two trailers the last three years :P but I'm pretty sure she'll be ok loading. She'll get to 'room' with Allie, Katie's horse. Remember the last schooling?

P.S. you can see Bubba and I clearly in the 3 photo, second dark bay from the left.

I Just Love Her...

Nothing much new to report but that Daisy is still steadily improving/healing. The swelling is basically gone; now she just rides like a pony with a one week break. I know, most ponies are fine after one week off... not Daisy. She behaves relatively well, but is just really energetic and active...we went on a small trail ride with Jean's two sons today, and Daisy was a bit ahead of both with her active walk...I have trouble keeping her at a LAZY walk! Haha. We rode in a big clearing where a bulldozer was running. It spooked her a little at first (just tried to spin (slowly) and back away, but with the other ponies going she went) but then she got pretty used to it. There's a log jump in the clearing; not big, but big enough to force her to truly jump, and we went over it a few times. She felt INCREDIBLE. It was like a mini-high that I felt like at the cross country schooling in October. When a jump is big enough to challenge her so she picks up her hooves for real and rounds over it, she feels sooo good. I knew in the midst of her silliness there was a reason I loved her! :) She's the bestest, despite her frequent shenanigans. ;) Of course, as soon as she got out, she took a nice roll and ruined the good grooming I have her...*sigh*. I filmed it...may put in on at some point ;)

And these fine young ladies should be our neighbors in a few weeks (*fingers crossed*)
Jordan to the left, Jayda to the right. Jean's sister, Jenny, is closing on a house (hopefully this week) that is on a street next to ours, for me about a 10-15 minute horse ride over. AND! They have an indoor!!!

Yeah. I'm psyched. :D

January 6th Video Update (Tuesday

I didn't get around to uploading this until now...I'm apologize for my absence of posts.... :P
Sorry the video's a little long...

Recap Oh Nine & Two Thousand Ten Goals

It is currently 29 minutes away from the new year...so I figure I'll do a quick post to say just recap some stuff and such...I'm not going to bother making this all sappy. Lets just cut to the chase.

Best Events of 2009:
1. Junior Division Overall High Point at county fair...true, our county fair has some pretty sad competition (no offense people....just saying, we all aren't the very best :P) but it was still an accomplishment; second year of fair that I did, first year that I rode Daisy every day for everything (english and western, games and gymkhana) and we got high point. Together, we made it there.
2. The right lead canter and side passing over poles; that was our goal for the year, and we met it head on; Daisy's great at both now, and that's really what made the difference at fair.
3. Hunterpace...*much* different then I thought it would be, but very very fun none the less; great experience, and I hope to do it again.
4. Cross Country Schooling. Currently one of the best days of my life. Enough said.

Goals for 2010:
1. Skills: Turn on the hindquarter and forehand, hopefully flying lead changes.
2. Events: Eventing. More schoolings, lessons, boarding, jumping, 3 phase eventing...that will be *quite* an experience. But I'm up for it, and I'm pretty sure Daisy is, too.
3. Personally improve in the english riding department :P and work with Daisy to improve dressage.
4. Do incredibly at county fair, SENIOR level this year...but we'll see. :P
5. Excel at everything *despite* (because certain people think it's a bad thing) being barefoot. Advance my barefoot knowledge and be able to show others the benefits.

Well...that's about all I wanted to say. December 31, 2010, I will look back on this and see what I can check off. :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR! (Currently 22 minutes away now)

Sunday Stills Challenge: The Letter "C"

This week's challenge, the letter "C", was relatively easy...I just stepped out the door, looked around, and took "C" pictures...not good pictures, but the subjects do start with "C"...

My first one wasn't actually taken outside...this is my model of an edible cell.
No, I'm not enjoying Biology this year... :-/

It was pretty annoying to make...but there it is...it's a Cell, with a Cell wall and Cell membrane and Cytoplasm and Chloroplasts...lots of "C's" (in case you want to know, it was made with a brownie)

Each year, a place pretty close to where I live hosts the Cosequin Stuart Horse Trials. All entrants to the event (which has included Jean for summer 2007 and 2008...at least, those are the summers that I went, too) receive a Cosequin bucket with merchandise...I got one of the buckets :) I love them. This one is pretty faded, but...another "C" for Cosequin (Cosequin is a VERY good, VERY expensive join supplement for horses)

Next "C": Cats.
Miss Genevieve tonight...a little bleary-eyed...

And cat number 2...Groenemeyer...who came home today sporting (for the first time in 2 years) battle wounds...wonder what animal he was hunting! :P his nose is scraped up, and so is his paw and the base of his tail...I put some antibiotic ointment on...he'll be fine.

And, last but NOT LEAST, I made a video of my CROSS COUNTRY jump schooling I went to last weekend with Daisy-Mae! Our first one!
I know, it's not actually a "still"...so that's why it's not the main part of the post. Feel free to watch it, if you're interested...and I apologize for the *terrible* quality, I'm not sure why the quality got so much worse after the video was saved on my computer... :-/...I'm not a tech geek, so it'll take a bit for me to figure that out... :(

Check out more subjects with the letter "C" at Sunday Stills!

First Ever Cross Country Schooling!

Guess what I did today! OH YEAH!

I went to my first schooling (hence title)!!! It was SUPER SUPER fun! The best way to spend Columbus Day off of school EVER! Daisy was incredible....really, really great. We went in a group of 3 riders, Oliver (Jean's son) on Phoenix, another girl named Katie on her quarter horse, and I led by Karin (from 3 posts ago). Daisy refused 3 times total, in 1 1/2 hours...once, at the second jump, a stone jump with a piece of wood over the stones...it was big, and funky looking, so she tried to refuse, than at the last minute popped over it, anyway...she got a small cut on her hind left leg, but was otherwise unharmed...after that, she did actually jump the jump :P :). I learned that Daisy tries to shoot off to the left of jumps...so I had to use a lot of left leg and right rein... The other time she refused, it was pretty much my fault because I wasn't focused enough and I didn't set her up well, so I made it too easy for her to refuse, and she did...we tried it again and she was fine. The course had a series o f small jumps with a bigger jump next to it...we ended up doing the bigger jump almost each time because Karin thinks Daisy jumps better if the jump is bigger, otherwise she doesn't try as hard to get over and jumps flat...as promised, I got a TON of footage of the course! I think I have every jump on tape, and every refusal, and each time I re-did it...at the end of the course the schooling, we each jumped the course individually...it was CRAZY! Daisy was SO strong; I've watched Jean jump courses for a few years now; this time I was the one out there! :P Funny feeling...but SO FUN! Your adrenaline starts flowing and it's incredible to be out there following the course...I think it was 14 or 15 jumps. The video above is of the (I THINK) biggest jump...it was just over the top of a hill. When I did the course, Daisy got a ton of energy going up the hill because over it you were heading back toward the trailers, and she jumped fast, than took off, as she does frequently these days.
Karin tried to tell me later on that she took off because her hooves were sore and horses ran thinking it would help their hooves...whatever. Anywhooo...
I turned the corner after that jump at a gallop, tried turning, didn't really get anywhere, tried pulling back to stop, didn't help, and than Karin was calling out that I should raise my hands...I was like, "WHAT?!". I'm always told to keep my hands down; put them UP?! I did it, though, and Daisy slowed right down... :P
I turned back around to the jump I passed, and finished the course...it was incredible. I had no idea it was so stinkin' fun! AND Daisy was GOOD at it! You should see her; she tucks her legs right up and launches over...and those jumps were BIG for our standards!

I do have a lot more footage and Jean is going to send me pictures...sooo, hopefully (next weekend, maybe?) I can put together a video with pics and filming and music...
For now, you'll have to be happy with this... :)
First rider is Oliver, second is another girl we went with, third is me...and I have a video of the second time I jumped this jump, and Daisy didn't spook at all, so it was even better... :)