November's 10 Questions

Thanks Viva Carlos for giving me some writing material! Not riding full time makes this blog kind of boring.

1. Have you ever owned a horse?

Yes! On my records, I've only owned Rico (since he's the only horse I've owned since I was 18). In the past, my family has owned a few more for me including Stretch, Quest, and Tammy. I also rode my parents' horses, Dandy, Shawnee, and now Riot. Stretch, Riot, Dandy, and Rico are the horses at my parents barn now. Shawnee and Quest died while we owned them (Shawnee living to 36 and Quest into his mid 20s). Tammy was a naughty pony that was way way way too much horse for me as a 12 year old so we sold her. 

This one is my favorite though

2. What is your favorite aspect of your discipline?

I love how I can throw my type A personality into it and it actually pays off. 

3. What pet peeves do you have concerning your discipline?

Uh how about how trainers are allowed to school horses MINUTES before their client gets on and goes in the court. 

4. Do you do barn chores?

Yep! Rico is at my parents' ranch so I help out as best I can when I'm there. Typically I'll just clean his paddock and make sure all my stuff is tucked away. 

5. What is your least favorite barn chore?

I don't really have a least favorite but I will fill wheelbarrows up to their very fullest capacity before I'm walking that shit down to the pile. 

6. What do you consider the worst vice in a horse? 

Rearing isn't great, although it depends on the rearer. Rico reared a fair amount as a young horse, but with Rico, I trusted that he would never flip over or put me in danger, so that ended up being fine. With a stupider animal, I'd be scared. I really hate horses that twisty buck. I'd take an intelligent rear over a twisty buck. 

7. What saddle brand is your favorite? 

Custom for dressage, Devoucoux for jumping. 

8. Do you ride with a quarter sheet in the winter?

I have my fleece one for especially frigid days when he's full clipped and a rain proof one to either get to a covered arena or, these days, just ride in when it's raining.

For rainy days

9. Does your horse wear boots? What kind?

Yep, always in front and sometimes behind. He typically wears PE cross country boots in front (I have the hinds too for jumping) but sometimes I'll throw on fleece dressage boots or polos if we're trying to be fancy or I want to keep his legs warm. 

10. Full seat or knee patch breeches? 

Full seat, even over fences, I struggle a lot in knee patch. I used to do full seat for dressage only and knee patch over fences but after doing dressage exclusively for so long, I can't jump without them. 

Hanging out with Rubis

I rode Rico dressage yesterday. We did a bit of trail riding out in the pasture next door where I let him run, then came into the ring for a 30 minute school. 

He's definitely getting rusty in the movements now. My once super responsive and sensitive horse is kinda dull to my aid and making more mistakes than he used to. Meh. We still made it through the entire PSG canter pattern, the I1 zig zag, a bunch of piaffe, and even some walk-passage transitions. He's still fun, just not AS fun. But doing dressage for 30 minutes once a week is a very different work schedule than doing dressage for 45 minutes 4x per week. 

It was funny, I kept thinking "gah, he's not doing XYZ, I'll bring that up to Heidi" and then realizing that I would never take another dressage lesson on Rico. That kind of isolation was kinda scary! I haven't been out of regular lessons since 2012 and I struggled a lot then. I'm twice the rider now than I was at that time though, and it doesn't matter how shitty our dressage gets, so we'll be fine. 

Not going to be this fancy again though

I am struggling with the serviceably sound thing. Rico wants to be ridden, he wants to gallop on trails and jump fences and do dressage. But yesterday we had no fancy trot because he was a bit sore in his front feet. Not lame, but on hard ground in a tight circle at the walk, he definitely struggled. Undersaddle he felt sound but just not wanting to let those front feet do very much work.

I have an email into my vet asking if I should just leave him be or if I should bute him after/before I jump or trail ride or just ride in general. He certainly doesn't need bute to be sound enough to ride or anything. He's a lot sounder than Stretch who I don't bute to ride. But I worry about causing inflammation in his feet- I don't want those coffin joints remodeling themselves. I also don't want to rip up his stomach either, or have a horse that I'm constantly medicating if he doesn't need it. 

This is all new to me having a serviceably horse in semi-retirement! He's having a blast though.

Hanging out in pasture, he loves those trees behind him