June 19, 2011 Hunterpace

The hunterpace took place this past Sunday, and I waited to post hoping that the other photographer on site would post the pictures, but he hasn't yet, and so I'm going to go ahead and post.

What a great hunterpace it was! It was an absolute blast. All but the last picture are by  Lydia, and I love them :)

Jenny picked Daisy and I up at our house at 9am. We were on the grounds less than a half hour later. The weather was perfect! About 70-75 degrees, not buggy on the trail.  

I was pretty excited to wear a pinny. ;)

We rode in the hunter division, which is described as being ridden at the gait that the terrain calls for, mostly trotting and cantering. We ended up trotting and cantering all of the places with open flat or uphill fields, and walking only in the wooded areas and downhill paths.

I had switched Daisy's snaffle out for a kimberwick, and I'm happy to say she completely respected it this time, unlike our first hunterpace. There were jumps spread out throughout the course. I remember jumping 13 of them, although there might have been more. There were lots of log jumps, and then some more interesting ones. The second one we did was a stone wall. The last time we jumped a stone wall, we took three tries to do it decently, the first time over Daisy had literally crawled her way over it (haha; our first cross country schoooling). This time, she jumped it perfectly! The logs on course were nice; not small jumps at all, but tall and wide. We jumped the majority of them, and I was thrilled with how she handled them. She never refused the entire time, and she didn't knock a hoof anywhere either.

The pic below is of the first jump, taken by photographer Bill Gamble. I think he probably got one more mid-air over the jump, except Skyler (Jenny's mare) was probably blocking us because she freaked out a bit :P oh well. 

On jump in particular was my favorite. It was a tire jump, with lots of different sized tires. The sides of the jump were just a jumble of rusty metal tractor parts. Apparently people chose not to jump it because if their horse were to duck out, they could injure themselves on the tractor parts. I didn't think that far however; I just thought it looked like fun, so Daisy and I jumped it. She was great! She didn't spook at any of it at all, and it was relatively big and such a blast to go over. Gosh, I can't make it up, she's just good at cross country :)

Jenny's mare Sklyer gave us both a pleasant surprise with how well she handled everything. She took everything like an old pro, even went first in front of Daisy to cross a wide stream of water. She kept up with our gallops and was just really good :) It was great to have Jenny along.

Oh, and best of all ---- we placed fourth out of thirty in the division! WHOOT! :)

Until later,

Dressage, Conditioning, Summer, Homeschooling, Thoroughbreds. . .

Much good has been going on on my life of late. . .
Tuesday was my last day of school; now I only have state exams the next two weeks (Only two left now). I've decided to home school next year, so the last day was bittersweet. This was Daisy and I when I got home.

My cats are basically the most adorable things you will ever see. This his Gronemeyer:

With his sister Genevieve, lounging together on our patio table this morning.

And then there's Miss Daisy, chest-deep in grass for an hour or two a day, depending on how bad the deer flies are. Nom, nom. . .

We've been riding over to Pony Club mounted meetings every week, which have been fun. We've worked on flat work and jumping. The last two weeks we practiced in a dressage ring. This past Wednesday was amazing! I remember to wear spurs and Daisy's dressage felt absolutely wonderful. It probably didn't look that great from the outside, but as I rode I could feel how awesome it was. Our instructor had me focus on sitting up straighter at the trot and canter, and boy. . . as soon as I fixed myself, Daisy's canter was much lighter and less forehandy. Funny how that works ;)


Tomorrow we're riding in our first off farm event of the year! I wasn't sure if we'd be doing anything until county fair, but our PC group is hosting a hunterpace as a fundraiser, and Jenny agreed to take me along and ride in it with me! We trail cleared last week and it looks like it's going to be a great time. I'm so excited! I rode 5.2 miles with Daisy yesterday to prep and she was marvelous. It was the first time doing the 'long' block this year, but she was full of energy, so we did lots of trotting and cantering (in her easy boots) and it was just grand :) 


I'm going to be showing Ladd at fair next year! I'm going to try to get out and ride him more often from now on. He's a 17hh TB that I was riding last summer already; he's a riot :) 


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,

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

________________________________________

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. :)