Blog Hop: Lucky Number Seven

I'm all for some blog fodder these days so here's a blog hop that Spotted Dressage set up for us. Major thanks to everyone who creates these blog hops, gotta love easy content, and seeing how everyone answers the questions is fun!


1) Where do your current riding horse(s) hail from?

TC was bred and spent the first four years of his life just twenty minutes north of where he's living right now. He was kind of a eh fuck it baby.

His older half sister was thought up and carefully bred- her owner had a thoroughbred mare and wanted to cross her with a good natured warmblood stallion. They chose Ideal, an Oldenburg stallion known for being an improvement sire and having good rideability/trainability. The thoroughbred mare was a handful, so Ideal was a good match. When the filly hit the ground, the owner talked to TC's dam's owner about possibly giving her the remaining sticks. They contacted Ideal's owner and said "what do you think about a friesian cross?" and they went for it!

Wow it looks like he is the bringer of death

As a yearling, he started working on that dip in front of his withers
real early (pretty much gone now!)

TC was born and they really didn't know what to do with him. He was slow to mature, slow to learn, a bit too chill about everything (I just remember leading him in from the pasture when he was three, the horse walked VERY SLOW). Supremely not talented- his canter was downhill and lateral, his trot was choppy with his hind legs out behind him. They thought he'd make a good husband horse because of his mind.

I came along when Rico needed a few months off due to his coffin joints acting up and thought he'd be a fun project. We all know how that ended, and I'm really glad that he's turned out to be the diamond that I really hoped was in all that rough.

Rico on the right of the picture, obviously

Rico's sale picture, always happy to lean out over his chest

Rico, on the other hand, was bred in Germany and then imported with his partner Limbo to be a combined driving horse in the states. I really don't know much about his childhood (vs with TC I have baby pictures and a detailed account of everything he's done since he was a little horse fetus), but I bought him when Limbo went lame and Rico was too lazy to be a singles horse. His old owners sent him to my previous dressage trainer, Heidi (who my trainer at the time was riding with at the time) and she told me that she'd found my ideal horse. He, er, wasn't my ideal horse for a long time- I rode him badly and he scared me- but I do not regret one moment with that horse, given how far we went.


2) What is the number one thing that makes your riding horse(s) unique and enjoyable for you?

With Rico it's for sure how safe he is. I would do anything on that horse, take him anywhere, and always, 100% of the time feel like I was going to be totally and utterly safe. I can trail ride him tackless, I can put ANYONE on him and know exactly what he'll do, I can do anything to him and know that he's never going to be unpredictable or really do anything other than stand there and wonder when he's going to get his next meal.

TC has been trickier for me. But I so so appreciate his work ethic. The horse tries so fucking hard. Every aid I use, even aids that I'm not sure I'm using, go through to him. If he's not doing something, it's because he's physically incapable of doing it, the end.

TC is uh, not there yet

3) What is the proudest moment you've shared with your riding horse(s) in the past 3 years?

I think the moment with Rico is predictable- when I earned my USDF Gold Medal on him. I had bought him about 30 days undersaddle, did the bulk of the training in weekly lessons (in the last five years of our relationship, I had exactly one trainer ride), and he debuted at Grand Prix only a year after his Prix St George debut.

With TC we haven't had any major milestones or anything. We haven't even showed. But I think the most salient milestone I've hit with him has been our trail ride the other day. That trail ride showed very clear progress toward him being the horse that I want him to be. Just knowing that six months before that moment, I was terrified of him and thinking that I'd never ride him again, let alone be wandering the trails on a loose rein, taking pictures behind the ears... it was just amazing.

Gold Medal

Recent view :) 

4) What have you struggled with the most with your riding horse(s) in the past three years?

Honestly Rico and I haven't struggled much riding-wise because we just haven't been riding much, but one thing that I've struggled with has been his age and illnesses/injuries. Rico has been an older horse for a while, but he's always been so strong and powerful. I remember hauling out to lessons and people being shocked that he was in his late teens. He debuted at the FEI levels when he was seventeen years old, earned me my Gold at eighteen. It always felt like, although he did need injections (though not til he was sixteen), age was never going to affect him.

And it really didn't for a while. But when he was diagnosed with neck arthritis, Internal Pigeon Fever, Peritonitis, and Hepatitis in a matter of six months. When I watched him struggle for his life, rushed him to the hospital in the middle of the night, saw all of his muscle and fat melt off of him... that was really when I realized that he is indeed an old horse. Almost losing him was terrifying to me, and he's not very rideable anymore. I remember when I started riding TC that I was so glad that I had Rico to play with, even just to passage around and feel the changes. Now I don't have that, and I can't remember the last time we did those things. TC better step up his game.

Also struggled with modeling recently

TC's struggles are obvious too. His suspensory was a major blow to us, and I'm still struggling to believe that he really has recovered. Every day I go out to the barn with an inkling of "are you going to be sound today?" in me.

Then the behavioral issues were awful. After lots of reading and reflection, I think they were caused by a) too little turnout, b) me being nervous and not giving him confidence, and c) the wrong program. I'm really proud of how far we've come, and I feel like I'm only a year or two away from him surpassing Rico in how safe and rideable I feel that he is, but the behavioral problems were real and the fear was real. I remember feeling more and more anxious as the workday went on, having to go to the barn afterward and be taken off with. And that was even when he was rideable and not standing up whenever I got on him.

Sometimes I really can't believe that this is the same horse- the horse that I now will trail ride and canter around bareback on.

Rode bareback the Friday before vacation

5) What type of riding do you do?

Dressage! I've been competing (well not for the last three years but I'm hoping to remedy that) since I was eighteen years old. Earned all three medals and now I'm back at the beginning again. Rated show debut isn't too far off.


6) What are you hoping to accomplish with your current riding horse(s) this summer?

Well, I mostly just want Rico to stay comfortable and happy this summer (and forever).

With TC, I have three big things on my plate: I want to trail ride him, I want to show him at a rated show and not completely embarrass ourselves, and I want to do a clinic or two in a new place. Everything is on the calendar and it's just a matter of holding ourselves together!

For real this time

7) What is your next long term goal with your current riding horse(s)?

Hmm basically what I just said- continue to trail ride, learn new things, and show! Long term with TC I'm looking at a few major milestones. The first one would be to get my Bronze Freestyle Bar. And maybe an All Breeds or CDS award or something. I dunno, I rushed up the levels with Rico so fast that we were never competitive, so winning SOMETHING would be nice.

The next big milestone would be to get him to the FEI levels. In my dreamland he'd be nice enough to dabble in CDIs on the small tour (and I'd have the money to do it, not sure what is less likely) for a year or two. Then it will be getting back to Grand Prix. I really want to earn all my Centerline Scores stars. If TC gets to Grand Prix, I'll have no trouble doing that. And in a crazy dream world again, the large tour CDI stuff would be ridiculous fun. Or probably just cause me way too much anxiety to want to do it at all. So scratch the CDIs even just based on my mental state, completely ignoring that TC is absolutely not nice enough to do it.