Sunday Stills Challenge: Signs of Fall (and also Macro Monday 9/28/09)

I will admit that this week, my entrants were pretty lame...Fall has barely arrived at our house, so there aren't that many "signs of fall" around....I will admit that I went to the archives for the first two shots, taken last year because they are much prettier and more "fall-like" than the ones I took this week...

This is what it really looks like...not very pretty.

These next few are also my entrants for Macro Monday this week...

Now, I have my own personal "sign of fall"...for those (FEW) of you that read my blog regularly, do you notice anything different about my pony? (Besides the fact that she's whinnying adorably at the camera, AND looking at it?)

Her coat is darker...it gets almost liver chestnut in the fall, like her mother (though I've never seen pictures of her mother, that's what I'm told she looks like).

For more signs of fall around blogland, check out Sunday Stills!
Or maybe even join! It's a great way to make yourself get out with your camera and snap pics...although, don't take my word for it, because evidently I'm pretty bad at taking my camera out a lot to get good pics...this week I waited until today to get the pics :P :).

Game Show Pictures and First Ever Hunterpace

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Hello!
These are the promised pictures from the game show 2 weekends ago; sorry it took so long, time flies so fast! :P The last pic I look really grouchy in that "I'm unaware that a picture is being taken" sort of way...I am actually happy, I just don't look it :P Anyway, that shows how I generally sit when waiting for a class; it feels SOOO good, it stretches your legs :P

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This past Saturday, Jean and I went to our first Hunter pace...Unfortunately, I have NO pictures of it whatsoever...sorry! It was a blast, though. Jean rode Bubba, and I rode Daisy. We each had red saddle pads, white long sleeved shirts on with red polos overtop. We tacked at her place and took the 2-horse trailer over to the grounds (very close by). We registered, finished bridling, and got on. We started out at 10:32 am and Daisy was excited. As soon as we went over the first jump and started galloping, she was gone. That's it. NO MORE walking the entire way; she wouldn't have it. If Jean walked, Daisy 'jigged' behind Bubba. It was CRAZY! The second jump, Daisy tried to run-out to the left, and ran smack into Bubba; I kept cantering, turned her, and drove her at it again and she popped over. For us, it was a high jump...not sure how high, though. Nothing over 2'6". We continued along; she tried to run-out the third jump, I made her go over, and after that, she didn't really try to get away anymore. On the fourth jump, a pretty high jump for our standards, I smacked her to keep her from running out and the crop broke! The handle was dangling from the crop, and as I went over, the handle swung back and hit me between the knuckles. Ouch!! We entered woods for a bit, and crossed a stream...unfortunately, it was really banged up from all the horses crossing, so Daisy almost didn't want to go because the footing was terrible...Continuing on, my legs were BURNING because during gallops Jean had me standing in the saddle to work on balance...ouch again! lol...my right calf is still sore when I walk down stairs :P. At one point, we galloped up this REALLY steep hill along the edge of a cornfield, and Daisy got so into it (I think it bugged her that Bubba was leading) that she shot past just as Jean called out that there was another turn; figures. I had to gallop past and regain control so I could turn around! :P
Toward the end, Daisy was REALLY fiesty, and she saw Bubba go over two jumps in a row made of barrels...I didn't plan on going to over because I didn't think I could handle her, but too late, she turned toward them, cantered, and we were over them :P. It was SUPER fun, she jumped sooo high! (It feels like it, anyway). Right after, Daisy got a burst of energy and took off with me at a gallop...had to wait until the field turned before she slowed down! CRAZY horse. And that with a Kimberwick bit! We also went over a tire jump very successfully...I think I'm doing a lot better with looking UP instead of down at the jump, which is a bad habit I have. :)

We learned a few things at the hunterpace. First, it was WAY different then we thought (longer, hilly-er, etc), second, your knees KILL afterward, and third, once Daisy does one, she'll be so hyper at the end you'd think she could do it a few more times! In the end, we finished in 1 hour 19 minutes...silly us picked on of the faster divisions, so we didn't even place because we were slow :P. We learned a lot this time. First of all, the hunter paceLOL

Very fun experience though...we will probably go back next year. :)

Sunday Stills Challenge: the Color Purple

Alright, soo...I'm pretty lame-ooooooo, I know...I've had a very busy week, and rather than post nothing for Sunday Stills, I've edited one of my pictures from my archives...sooo...I'm a cheater...I used the archives, sorry Ed! :P

This is my cat, Genevieve, taken last year...edited on picnik.com. I generally am not a fan of the tool I used on this pic (can't remember what it's called), but for this picture, it turned out alright...and hey, I actually took it kind of following the rule of thirds! :)

See more shades of purple at Sunday Stills!

Macro Monday: The King

I've neglected to feature one of my barn cats (actually, both...if Genevieve holds still long enough, she can be next) lately, so here is Groenemeyer (aka, to me, "The King")...named after Herbert Groenemeyer, the German singer, in honor of my Uncle Volker, who died January 18, 2007... --------------------------------------------------
Yes, I realize the last pic isn't actually macro. :) See more Macros here!

Sunday Stills Challenge: Mechanical Transportation

Back in March when our family took a trip together to Germany, we had a BMW rental car :). These pics were from my archives; somehow, I didn't think our Ford Explorer would cut it for Sunday Stills ;).

Driving on the autobahn is super smooth with one of these; you don't realize you're going 100 mph :)

Aren't these license plates different? Kinda stylish somehow :P lol

While at a tourist stop, I spotted this Smart car. My brother rented one during a trip to Germany a few weeks ago; he said that despite their "small" size, they are pretty big on the inside because the space the car does have is all for 2 people...pretty cool. I hope I can ride in one one day! :)

Take a look at more forms of "Mechanical Transportation" at Sunday Stills!

September 12th Daytime Game Show

Hello!

Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of the game show today yet...I should have some next week.
I got to the barn just after 7:30 this morning, groomed Daisy so she was nice and clean, put on her SMB3 boots. I loaded her in the trailer, in the middle stall of the part that requires backing in the trailer...she was great! We recently took out a wall in the trailer, so it was sooo much easier to back her in. I didn't have my camera with me (I also forgot money and food this morning...yeah, school is making me lose it :P) , otherwise I would have shown you how adorable Daisy was with two "boyfriends", Scout and Phoenix, next to her :P. The got along great; when we were at the show grounds and about to unload, Daisy started eating dangling pieces of hay out of the boy's mouths! LOL so cute! She seemed to think they were hay nets :).

I tacked up, warmed up, and started out...for the first time this season, we got through a flour-pattern keyhole without being disqualified! YEY! And our time was decent!

Daisy was pretty great in all the classes...we weren't really more then about 3 or 4 seconds off at the most from the person who got the majority of the winning times...we got 4th out of 5 most of the time, although once we got 1st in Straight Line because people knocked barrels (Daisy nicked practically EVERY barrel, it was pure chance that they didn't fall over)...The best part of the time was the Mystery Event, which turned out to be ribbon race...Last year, I did ribbon race around this time with a girl named Jamie, who borrowed a friend's horse for the event as her's was out of commission...Coincidentally, the girl who actually owns the horse from last year, asked me to go with her today because she didn't have a partner...so for her turn, I was her partner, and we did well, it was fun. Then for my turn, Jean was my partner, and for her's, I was her partner. I wish I could have taped us. We had a BLAST.

Whoops, gotta back up a little...Jean decided to retire Bubba from eventing this year after his jumping became considerably worse then usual, and she's realized he's outgrown eventing. He's now a pleasure horse that she's going to use for advanced lessons, and for open shows. Jean decided to take back what she always said about never riding Bubba western, and is now riding him western sometimes, neck reining. He's picking up on it fast, through a lot of leg yielding, and Jean decided yesterday to bring him to the game show today, riding English.

Now back to ribbon race. Jean and I got in the ring, me on the outside, and we were off; holy cow. We were insane. Bubba and Daisy were galloping full speed, no stopping them, it was INCREDIBLE! SOOO fun! First time, we got around in 12 seconds something....second time, Bubba was so "jacked up" that he was hard to steer, so he started to run from Daisy, and before I could catch up, the ribbon broke...but it was still fun. Daisy really liked it; I could tell. :)

So the show was worth it...next up, Hunterpace and pleasure show on Jan. :)

Hmmmm...Just Some Stuff

Hello!

I've officially started school again, so I probably won't be posting as often, as I'll be busy with school work :-/

Daisy was trailered to Jean's house yesterday because of a pretty busy two weeks that I have ahead of me. Today, the Yautzy Road Yahoos had a pre-game show mounted meeting (yey!). We worked on pattern's in Jean's arena; lots of fun. Saturday (tomorrow), we have an all-day game show. It's one of the best of the year; unlike the evening game show from a few weeks ago, this one is the best. It has a TON of events; keyhole, cloverleaf, pole bending, straight line, Texas T, ribbon race, can race, etc, etc, etc...very fun. :)

Saturday in a week (the 19th) is a special day; Jean and I are going to our *first* hunter pace! Neither of us have ever gone, so for the first time, she's taking just me :)...though we did invite our vet, who also events...we'll see. Next year we'll add a few club members. It's a 6 mile ride with optional jumps up to 2'6". I'm so excited! We're going to use red saddle pads, shirts, etc, and head out...yey! Daisy isn't the greatest at jumping (understatement), but it will still be fun.

I rode Daisy bareback alone through the woods yesterday at Jean's house...we jumped a log jump a few times; it's not super big, but it is a jump. She felt AWESOME! She has a tendency to either run-out on a jump at the last minute, or jump very flat. She did neither! She went over the jump really well; it really feels like you're soaring, especially bareback. :P

For your enjoyment, I've attached two pictures of us jumping in a trail class...last fall, then this spring :P

*Snort* in the second one, I'm just sitting there, doing nothing....looks quite funny.

The mounted meeting today was a BLAST!
I got on Daisy, western, and found right away that she was SUPER hyper...I wasn't sure why; I had ridden her the day before, so it was kinda weird...I jumped her out back on the trail a little again, galloped a stretch...and she was still "bouncing off the walls" when we got in the arena. The meeting was fun; just 7 of us on horseback, not too crowded, and we did some pleasure-stuff, then mounted games. Daisy was a ROCKET. SUPER DUPER fast. She was a crazy cantering, flying lead changing, hot barrel racer....crazy. While we'd wait to go again, I started sitting Indian-style on the saddle...something we've all taken to doing when we're riding, especially waiting for classes at shows...at some point, I ended up standing up straight on Daisy's rump! I should get a picture...it's SO funny. I drop the reins, and she stands fine as always, and I stand up slow on her back. Then I sat on her rump and slid back and forth; she just turned her head with a look on her face that clearly said "You're insane, I knew it" but she didn't move.

Later on, everyone was practicing for pick-up race, where one rider stands at the end of the arena, and a mounted rider rides up to the other one, swings them on the horse's back, and they race double back to the finish...the kids in our club only trot home, but it's still fun...I'd never done it with Daisy because I didn't think she'd stand it. I decided to try. I sat back behind the saddle, on the rump, and leaning forward, walked around, then trotted, then cantered around; she didn't bat an eye. Her ears were pinned, but they are 90% of the time, so that doesn't mean anything...she couldn't care less. I had Oliver go to the end of the ring, and I rode over, picked him up, and we walked and trotted double; Daisy didn't care.
Looks like I can enter a pick-up race with her, after all!

I went to feed Daisy after the meeting and was surprised to find Daisy's breakfast grain still in the scoop...uh oh. :P Jean mixed up one container with another and Daisy got I think 1 1/2-2 quarts of sweet feed! AHH! She's on almost no sweet feed right now; mainly crimped oats and sunflower seeds...so no wonder she was so hyper! :P Evidentally, she was fine, though, because she still handled riding double and me standing on her!

I'm so proud of my pony...she may not be purebred, or super impressive at shows, but she's so agreeable...she has the perfect balance of patience, spunk, and brains :P. I couldn't ask for a better horse. :)

Macro Monday: Pansy

In the midst of posting Sunday Stills each week, I completely forget about Macro Monday! I took a few macro pics this weekend, so here are a couple...simple...but I like them. :)

Check out more Macros at Sunday Stills!

Sunday Stills Challenge: Rule of Thirds

This week challenge, "rule of thirds", meant that you take a picture with the subject anywhere bu the center...at first, I thought that was kinda weird, but I think I like rule; it's kinda neat...did I do it right?

This is my brother's dog, Sasha, a rottweiler/German Shepherd mix. She's been staying with us for a few weeks while my brother visited Germany. :)

Before Daisy's Time: My First Show

Back in the day when caveman roamed the Earth, and dinosaurs weren't extinct yet, I had my first horse show.

Well, at least I made the first sentence interesting, right? Right.

A year and a half before I found Daisy, I made friends with the owners of three miniature ponies down the street from our house. I used to go to their house a few times a week and take care of the ponies. It was pretty cool, because I went over there whenever I wanted, and played with the minis. It was like having my own horses. That next spring, one of the girl's on my brother's swim team invited me to show one of her miniature horses (not the ones on my street). It was a blast. The night before I had a crash course on showmanship, halter classes, and obstacle, and early the next morning we were off. I think I borrowed all the clothes I wore, haha, and the horse, but I had a ball!

One class was obstacle. You had to lead your horse over poles, have him turn on the forehand in a hula-hoop, walk over a tarp, etc. We got fourth place.

I remember being SO nervous for showmanship. I went in as the first person, which meant in the line-up I was last to see the judge. We had to walk forward, stand for inspection with the judge, do a 180 degree turn, and trot back. I don't remember the fine details, but I know I had a hard time when standing for inspection because Doc, the pony I showed, didn't want to stand still. I felt like a failure because he kept prancing around, and not squaring up...but we ended up with 2nd place out of 10 people. I was SO proud. I've been told that the judge admired that I kept trying even when he was a jerk...I don't know if that's true, but it made me happy!

The last pictures are of Doc showing with his owner. :)

A year later, I bought Daisy.

I value all the experiences I've had before I had Daisy; everything I did with horses, big and small, taught me something. I give credit to the minis this year when I had 1st place showmanship at the county fair; it's nice that I had already had that experience. :)