Another Year Another Horse Expo (and More Blogger Meetups)

This weekend started out with a bang- Kate and I headed up to Peony's to stay overnight since she was conveniently located near our weekend activities, is a super fun person to hang out with, and has the most comfortable guest bed I've ever slept in. Seriously I've harassed bf about getting one of these things for us.

Kate and I stopped for sandwiches for dinner, but after some good pony talk with Peony and Andy after arriving, we all headed out for froyo. Then talked about ponies and watched pony videos until way too late before going to bed.

I want to jump this dragon

At our blogger trail ride the weekend before, Nicole had mentioned that Alyssa was coming down to show about an hour and a half north of Peony. I proposed that we get up early and go visit Alyssa and Nicole before going to Expo, which added 3 hours to our day, and Kate was like YES. And this is why we are friends! So we left at 6:45, grabbed breakfast from the delicious breakfast bar near Peony's house, and were on the show grounds at 8:25.

We didn't want to interfere, since I'm kind of a mess at shows and meeting new people is not what I want to have happen to me right before a test, so we watched Alyssa and Bacon from a distance. They put in a BRILLIANT ride. I'm always amazed reading Alyssa's blog because of her battle with Lyme, and just to see them put in a fabulous ride after an 11 hour journey was really inspiring. We talked a bit about how damn easy it is to be a serious dressage rider in my area- we have tons of shows and trainers and you can earn all your medals and qualify for championships each year never driving more than 30 minutes from my home facility.

The clouds were so cool that day

Just like every other blogger I've met, Alyssa is super nice and was fun to chat with. Bacon can also totally give Charlie a run for his money in terms of coat softness. She's such a sweet mare, I love meeting new blogger ponies.

Kate and I decided to walk some of the cross country course before Nicole rode. Alyssa had told us a bit about the course and so we were excited to see it. The course is ADORABLE yet had some challenging moments, including one down bank illusion that Kate and I both had bug eyes about, but I'll let Nicole and Alyssa go into depth about the course.

Next, it was Nicole and Murray's test. We chatted with Nicole's trainer and stood with Alyssa and her husband to watch warm up and then walk over for the test before having to leave rather quickly. We did still manage a group picture, yay blogger meetups!

Had to go get my boots from my car, I thought the central valley
was supposed to be hot! But it rained on us...

An hour and a half later we were picking Peony up from her house (she opted to go ride her horse that morning instead of sitting in the car for 3 hours) and heading off to Horse Expo! Kate had never been, I've been a lot of years in a row, including last year with Peony and L.

My main goal of Expo was to find a show coat. There aren't a ton of english booths, but there are some, and I was lucky enough to find the PERFECT coat at Goode Rider. Normally a $300 coat, I paid $150 (plus $8 in ATM fees because they were cash only) and was incredibly pleased. It fits super well and is really comfortable. It's just plain black, vs the really cool slate gray with white piping one I had been looking at (it was the same price but the fit was really off IMO). I wanted something with a little bling, but at least now I can go completely wild with my stock tie and not look like a crazy person I guess. And I mean you can't beat the price.

Also on my list were hock boots for TC. He keeps ripping up the point of his hock when he lays down, and no amount of washing and AluShield is helping. I came up to them and said "I need your largest pair" and they asked if I had a draft horse and I said no, and he's not even that big (16.2 on his tip toes), but the horse has some fucking JOINTS. They sold me the XL pair and I had a moment of hesitation when they showed me the horse they designed the size for- a 19h draft horse. Got them home and put them on the next morning and... yeah they fit just fine. Horse has some fucking joints.

L and Carlos were with us in spirit!

I also managed to get talked into some supplements. They had a buy 2 get 1 free deal, so I grabbed the MSM I needed, plus grabbed a small thing of glucosamine. I think TC could use some extra joint support now that we're doing more collection and glucosamine is the next thing I want him on. I contemplating just getting more MSM or glucosamine, but the lady talked me into getting MuscleUp. TC very much struggles with soreness after harder rides, and when he is sore, I feel like it really sets us back. He comes up against me more often, is more likely to exhibit bad behavior, and is generally just kind of blah on those days which makes me feel blah about him. He's best when he's had a day off and then a light ride beforehand. They said the MuscleUp would help with residual soreness, so I'm curious to see if it works at all.

Beyond those things, everything else I got was just kind of a bonus. Peony and I found what is basically a dry shampoo/coat conditioner that I grabbed for show days. It's super hard to keep the horse clean for shows- he always rolls. So having that in the morning of the show would be nice. We also got free wound care spray, which is excellent since I've been looking for something to put on his hock sores. There were also a lot of places giving free grain samples, which I like to grab just to sprinkle on his grain for fun.

Speedy you're so cute!

Karen had posted on her blog that she'd be a demo rider for the dressage clinician at Expo. Normally I don't watch any of the clinicians, except maybe the breed demos, just because I have S judges a plenty at home to watch. But we watched this one mostly to see Karen and Speedy and give him a pet on the nose afterward! I can't say the actual dressage part was in line with my own training, so I didn't get much out of it in that sense, but Speedy is the cutest horse (I have a soft spot for grey arabs) and it was so fun to see him and Karen in person. He's got this little spot on his nose that I pressed a few times. He's also a supremely soft horse, I need to start currying my horse more!

Everyone was all about Speedy, so we didn't really get to talk to Karen much (or reveal we were bloggers, woops, seriously a whirlwind weekend), but it was still fun to meet them!

At the end of the day, Kate and I jumped back in the car and drove another two hours back to the bay area (totaling over 500 miles and 8 hours of driving in 24 hours). Bf has been working a couple of overnight shifts so I hadn't seen him in a while, and I totally passed out pretty immediately after saying hi and refusing food. Sorry bf, spent more time with him the rest of the weekend so it worked out.

Overall it was a SUPER fun weekend and we're only halfway through!

Bay Area Blogger Trail Ride

This week of seeing bloggers obviously needed to include the most amazing blogger meetup just after I arrived back in the bay area.

When we found out that Jen was coming into town again, Olivia posted on our bay area blogger facebook group that if we wanted to, we could come out to her barn, hop on some horses, and head to the winery with her and Jen.

I don't think any of us expected that ALL of us would want to do it (though who wouldn't want to do a trail ride to a winery and have a picnic?! Olivia knows how to throw a party). And it wasn't even all of us. Olivia, M, Figure, Kate, and I, who are all local to the bay area were joined by Nicole from further up north as well as Jen of course and we had a blast! HUGE thanks to Olivia for offering up her barn as a location, her horses, and wrangling a few other horses from her barn. And also a massive thanks to Kate for bringing me my favorite Ginger pony and her new pony Flounder to add to the group so that all of us could go.

She's the cuddliest, Fig got this awesome picture!

I'd met Levi and Eugene at a horse show but hadn't met Nilla yet, and actually had only seen Flounder from a distance, so I was super excited. I'd met all of the bloggers, though not spent tons and tons of time with some of them. I hadn't met Jen yet, as the last time she was in town, I was moving and couldn't drag myself away from that whole ordeal. So I was VERY excited for this. 

Once as we were all there, we started getting all the horses ready. I claimed my Ginger pony and we all headed to the small arena to get on and get situated. After a quick wander around the upper arena, we headed out to the winery.

Nicole and I had a nearly immediate laugh thinking about how TC or Murray would be on a trail like this. We had to walk down the road, being passed by cars and bikes, then over a few logs to get to a narrow and steep trail. Now, I actually grew up on these trails- not these in particular, but at a barn really close to Olivia's that had very similar trails- so you'd think I would be used to them. And for the most part I felt pretty comfortable, but let me tell you that I was VERY happy to have the Ginger pony rather than TC. Not that he can climb hills like that, but he would definitely have spooked at something and accidentally stepped off a cliff.

Yay! I was still so jetlagged, gah

Could see the reservoir from way up in the hills

We made it to the winery and tied our horses up. They were all SO GOOD to hang out tied. I also had a moment of reflection remembering that I needed to leave TC tied more often. He's fine at home, but if you leave him in a new place tied, he will eventually start rearing over and over again to entertain himself or get attention or whatever. His half sister does it too. It's completely obnoxious.

Olivia and David had brought a TON of food, which they got ready while the rest of us went in for some wine tasting. I'm not much of a wine person but it was a warm day and white wine sounded really good. We got three tastings of five done and then headed out to eat.

It was such a fun lunch. We mostly talked horses, of course. It's always so fun to hang around this group, we never run out of things to talk about. After we ate way too much food (and there was still some left over!) we headed back along the trail. Ginger was eager to get going, so we had some trotting to catch up a few times before we started heading back down to the road.

Pony ears! And David on Dijon and Fig on Eugene

After getting back, we kept Ginger, Flounder, Nilla, and Levi tacked up and headed up to the arena to play. I rode Ginger around some jumps and Kate reminded me to keep my eyes down and my leg off and to lean forward at all the jumps. Or maybe it was the opposite...? Ginger gave me a nice run out at a cross rail like she normally does, she also refused to walk over a ground pole because I was looking at it. I love her, she calls me on my shit (she thinks I deserve it because I call her on her shit in the dressage).

After Ginger, I played with Flounder, who is SUPER fun. He's young but gives such a good feeling. I couldn't help but to play with putting him on the bit. He's Kate's lesson horse and he's four so he's still figuring all that out. It was SO fun to have the same feelings that TC had when he was that age and learning to go on the bit. Lots of inconsistency but then suddenly he'd get it. Aaaallllllmost makes me want to do another young horse. Maybe I'll just borrow my friends' horses when I feel that way instead.

I absolutely had to get on Nilla, of course. Nilla is pretty much the exact opposite of TC, so I felt like I really struggled on her (I refused to jump her lol I jump the pony and that's it!). But she was super fun and oh my god those ears are the best.

EARS

Olivia got this- Nilla is so huggable! 

It was all over too soon and we all parted ways. I really want to do this again soon, it was a blast to see everyone. Even though I've met most of these ladies (and David) before, I remain so impressed at how easy everyone is to talk to. I feel like in the last year since we had our blogger meetup, and in the last two years since I met my first blogger (L!), I've made some really amazing friends. 

Through the Trees

Tuesday evening I headed out to ride a little late from work. My boss came in about an hour and a half before I wanted to leave and said "could you do this for [person]? I told her it was super easy and that it'd take you five minutes." It did not take five minutes. It never takes five minutes. I'm still working on it and it will take into next week.

Wandering around looking to spook at stuff so
that he can go to work sooner

TC was super happy to see me though, late as I was, he was in the mood to WORK. When he gets like this, he doesn't want to do anything but work. He doesn't want to walk on a loose rein around the ranch, he doesn't want to plop around with me on his back, he wants to WORK NOW LET'S DO THIS.

Generally I really love this about him, but I really should just listen to him and get him in the arena. Instead I did one loop around the ranch with him feeling super amped. All was well until we were walking between two trees on the way to the trail course and he saw a table leaning against one of the trees. Now, let me tell you first, this table has been there since the dawn of time. Pretty sure it was even there before the tree that it's leaning against was there.

TC is pretty sure it JUST appeared and it was for sure there to kill him. I was on a loose rein so couldn't gather them before he ran me into the other tree. A giant branch hit me on my arm and across my stomach as we cantered through the tree. Ugh. I was fine (just scraped my arm) but still, not the best way to start a ride.

Just a couple of small scrapes and some kitty paws

But the ride itself was brilliant. I love it when he comes to work like that. The trot work felt great, though I've been slacking a bit in it. With the setback a few weeks ago, I was so focused on getting him forward and through again, I kind of put the connection (in terms of getting him reaching out to the bridle, he's always connected) on the back burner. We worked on that a little bit and he seemed to be pretty comfortable getting out there.

I've also taken it upon myself to really fix myself at the canter. When I focus on myself, he stays rounder in the transitions, and when he stays rounder, I can praise him and then he gets more consistent. So we did that a bunch and after a few transitions in each direction, I felt like we were starting to really figure it out.

Jump number one was into the tree,
jump number two was a canter transition

Wednesday morning wasn't as positive as Tuesday night, but still not bad. I felt bad for him that he had to work just about 12 hours apart. I literally got home at 9:30 on Tuesday and was leaving for the barn at 6:30 on Wednesday. So he was fine, but we had a couple of funny moments in the left lead canter.

There are a ton of cats at the barn, and sometimes they hang around in the arena. Not a problem, TC has never really cared that much about cats, dogs, chickens, donkeys, minis, etc. The only thing he's really cared about in the arena have been the pigeons, and he loves to surge and kick at them while we're cantering. And bird shadows, but we were in the covered so that wasn't a problem.

A cat was in the arena and as we passed it, the cat kind of zipped off and sat under a chair in the corner. TC was fine with that, but we came back around and he did his surge and then jumped sideways to get in a position to kick at the cat. The cat didn't care. Poor TC, the cat was not impressed by his acrobatics.

The other issue to the left came when I was trying to circle left at the canter. TC was NOT having it. Every time we started to turn, he would canter on the spot and come off the bit. Please just turn, TC. But I can't blame him because I struggle a bit to the left- I don't actually sit down onto my right seat bone. And TC also struggles to the left. And at the canter. We had to break it down to the walk and very slowly work through the problem. By the end of the ride, we had no problems on the circle and I was glad that we fixed it with no fighting. But after Tuesday's ride, it was kind of ridiculous to suddenly have to back track to fixing our steering. Such is life with young horses though.

Food trucks are my fave, there's a food truck event every now and
then in my little town, I got to go last night!

This weekend is a crazy one, and I mean CRAZY. A surprising amount of it is non-horse things, but on Sunday we have a schooling show. We're going to do Training 2 and 3 again. I was thinking that if those go well and if I can school the lengthened canter enough, we might try First 1 at the following schooling show. Then we're potentially in rated show territory, where we'll be back at Training 2 and 3 until, well, whenever. I dunno how long we'll stick with Training.

But uh, don't tell TC any of these ideas!

Back in the Bay

I got back from the conference on Friday afternoon. Well, it felt like the afternoon, but it was actually 11:30am. It is SO much easier to fly west.

I was so glad to get back early enough to go see TC. With TC being a little naughty a couple of weeks ago, I opted to give him four days off while I was gone rather than have to find someone to ride him. I wanted to control what was going on with him to see if time off was helpful or not. Luckily things started going better when I left, so I wasn't worried.

Twice while I was gone, my mom went to go pet him and feed him. But other than that, he just hung out. So I was wondering how he would be coming out and was ready to longe him if necessary.

I headed out to the barn, relieved that the air was dry and that everything was dead around me. Home, sweet home.

A little spooky

TC was so chill in the cross ties when I was brushing him and tacking him up that I COMPLETELY forgot that he had four days off and just jumped on him without thinking about it. And he was fine. He was a little spookier than normal maybe. Or maybe he just had to spook at all the stuff that moved that shouldn't have moved and all the stuff that hadn't moved but that he had expected to move.

We had a good ride. Nothing spectacular but he was being good. He was a little bit sticky in his weak stifle, which I had expected. We spent a lot of time stretching at the trot and we did pretty minimal canter work.

Caves!

On Saturday I didn't ride TC until later in the day. In the morning I had ridden Riot and Sunny, then I zipped down to Pinnacles to go on a hike that I thought was going to be 3-4 miles but that was actually 7 miles (the whole day was 39,000 steps!).

I got to TC and as I was riding around the ranch, Kate called. Or maybe I called her. I don't know. We were coordinating things for Sunday and then got into normal pony talk. The thing about Kate is that she's basically an encyclopedia for horses. She's also started and ridden a LOT of young horses, so I like asking questions about TC's behaviors and brainstorming with her about him. He can be tricky for me sometimes.

The fun thing about TC is that I've ridden him basically his whole riding career, so I did all his training. He's amazing in the bridle, sensitive to my weight cues in a way my other horses haven't been, and he really takes every single thing I do as an aid- I don't lie to him very often aid-wise.

The terrible thing about TC is that I've ridden him basically his whole riding career, so I did all his training. I am not a young horse trainer. Looking back, if I were to do this again, I'd send the young horse to someone for them to start and for me to get back a horse who is ready to start dressage training. I didn't do a bad job. He's broke for sure. But some things that I think should come naturally to him kind of don't and then I get confused.

Wandering

One of the things that has annoyed me recently about him is that using the whip doesn't get the response I want. I don't like having less aids at my disposal. Especially forward aids because of his balking. I will use it and he either kicks out at it or ignores it. When he balks (he hasn't in quite a while), he comes against my leg, so having the whip to back it up in a productive way would be nice. So I asked Kate if she had experience with a horse who just doesn't get the whip aid, and she said yes (actually a horse I've both ridden and taught on lol). I said okay what have you found works? And she gave me an exercise that I might have modified, I forget.

Basically the idea is that the more aids you have to get a certain response (forward), the more likely the horse is to offer this response. So for TC, my seat can mean forward (tighten hip flexors, add tone to my body), my lower leg can mean forward (squeeze calf), and my spur can mean forward (poke). In addition, I can indicate forward with my upper leg (take thigh off) and hand (allow with elbow) by unblocking him from the direction he's going. With the balking behavior that TC sometimes offers, I employ all of these aids, but the one that seems to make things much worse is the whip. He just doesn't see the whip as being a GO aid, but more just an annoying thing that I do to him sometimes.

So TC was feeling particularly willing to go forward on Saturday (and Monday, woohoo), so I started to teach him to trot off of just the whip aid, backed up with my voice (trot on) and then lots of praise. Immediately the whip meant something to him and he never kicked at it or balked because of it! Horse training, so simple and yet I want to make it so complex with this horse.

I do like this view a lot of the time

The ride was just brilliant. But Monday's ride outdid it so I'm going to once again switch gears.

Sunday I got done with our blogger meetup way too late (more on that tomorrow) to ride and had scheduled myself to ride on Monday morning anyway. I figured another day off wouldn't hurt TC.

TC was a bit miffed though, too much vacation and not enough work makes TC want to WORK RIGHT NOW LET'S DO THIS. He was super eager in the cross ties to get out and about. Then spooked at a cat before insisting on walking the longer loop we sometimes take. I saw the turnout horses galloping and told TC that if he wanted to do that loop, he probably shouldn't spook at cats. So we turned elsewhere and just wandered in other places.

I got into the arena and I felt the familiar work-a-holic feeling I get from him sometimes. It was the same one when he dragged me to the middle of the arena the ride after I had taught him to turn on the forehand when he was three. This time he was just super on about the lateral work.

Monday mornings at the barn are my favorite

So we did a TON of it at the walk to warm up. Leg yield (getting steepness AND straightness?! Now to just get a touch more throughness), shoulder-in (seriously perfect, working on getting him to just be a little more steady to the right), haunches-in (just needs throughness), and half pass (still a work in progress).

I started trotting and he felt great, but we were immediately kicked out by the guy with the tractor. I just can't seem to coordinate my rides around the tractor dragging the ring! So we moved outside. I figure that moving arenas is good for us- I've done it so much to him that we can pick up just where we left off, which is super helpful for showing.

In the new arena, we did a little lateral work at the trot before doing what I really wanted to do since he was so down to work: fix the canter transitions.

The canter transitions are the first things to go when shit hits the fan with this horse. His canter is just tough for him, so when he's having a tough time, it's extra tough for him and he has to kind of be herded into it. This time though, he was super eager to canter so I used that to my advantage and told him he could TOTALLY canter. But it had to be through this chute of aids that I gave him: straight and on the bit. He likes to zip out to the right in the left canter transition, and lean on his right shoulder in the right canter transition. We also still have a slight head toss into the canter, which is fine for now, but I want to address it for strength building as well as better scores.

I love his facial expressions

But Monday he was super through. The canter itself felt really good too. His canter can be a little downhill and four-beaty sometimes, and this is just him learning to go from a working canter to a collected canter. I typically have to ride a half halt and help him hold it up there a bit with my seat and thigh, but Monday he offered it to me without any of that. He felt totally comfortable to hold it on his own, yay pony!

Weird Trees, Sea Bugs, and a Couple of Thoroughbreds

Last week I was in Washington DC for a conference, so obviously it turned into a blogger meetup! I was going to stretch this trip out over a few days of posts, but so much has happened since then that I rewrote everything into this epic post, so please bare with me.

Sunday Night

Despite red eye flights being terrible horrible things to do to yourself, I also really hate wasting time. On Saturday, I went to the WHP event and saw Kate's crew plus David do their SJ/XC and then on Sunday, I went to a little festival my town has every spring. I knew I wanted to have a full day in DC before my conference started on Tuesday, so the only time to get out there was overnight. Regrets. I got two hours of sleep and was awake during my nedir. Ugh.

Why was Megan so weird on Monday?

Monday

Monday morning I was able to get checked into my hotel around 9:30, then Austen gave me a metro stop to get to. I'm a little bit slow at using new public transportation, but I figured it out and made it! Even though the first train I got on kind of malfunctioned so I was dragged back and then hopped on another train. It all worked out in the end.

Poor Austen because the second I saw her and Lyra, I definitely hugged Lyra first, then Austen. That dog is just SO CUTE. We stopped for Austen to get some coffee (I had just had some so opted not to over-over-caffeinate myself) and I got to hold Lyra, who I contemplated stealing, but I had no idea where I was.

Rode the metro!

We hopped in Austen's car and headed out to see Pig at Austen's beautiful barn. I was SUPER excited. I have been to the east coast exactly once (Boston for my grandparents' funeral), and I saw ZERO horses, so I was determined to see horses this time. 

As we were driving out, I noticed a few things: the trees are weird (something Emma said about the trees in the bay area when she was there last year), everything is freakishly green, and there are speed cameras that catch you, creating this weird slow down near them and then speeding off afterward. 

I expressed a little apprehension about humidity. I've been in humidity maybe a handful of times and I've hated it every time. I asked Austen about it and she's like "you know when there's a big fat guy sitting on your chest and covering your mouth with his sweaty hand?"... yeahhh sure that happens all the time, so I was well prepared?

It's beautiful out there but it is HUMID

Upon getting out to the barn, I got out and felt like I was drowning, but at least I was drowning at a beautiful place. Horse keeping on the east coast is so different than it is out here. I could write a whole post about how different it was.

I got to meet one of Austen's barn mates who is going to school near me, so that was cool. She had another husky and both he and Lyra started talking/howling and it was the CUTEST thing I've ever seen. After tacking up, Austen hopped on and we headed out to the field. Dude. Field. Every now and then I see east coast (and others, I know I've seen Texas bloggers doing it too) bloggers ride in fields and I'm so jealous. Where do these fields come from? Why are they not developed/a vineyard/used for agriculture/owned by a person who hates horses? Why are the squirrels not destroying the ground so much that you have to worry about stepping in a hole and breaking a leg? 

Austen's barn connects with a load of other barns and all of them have fields to ride in! Just the idea of being able to do dressage out in the open regularly makes me swoon. Why do you guys ever go in the arena? 

The cutest dog on the east coast

The first thing that happened was Lyra finding a fox and chasing after it. Then Austen chased after her on Pig to tell her to stop. Lyra's plans were foiled as the fox ran back into the bushes, though she stalked it the whole ride. It was fun to see Pig and Austen in person. Knowing how much Austen has gone through to keep him going through the years, it was great to see him looking sassy, super sound, and happy in his work. It's such a balance with older horses, I definitely went through it with Rico. 

Pig is also adorable by the way (sorry Pig, I know you're majestic, not adorable), he doesn't show his age at all and kept spooking at me standing in the shade, but he has that old horse wisdom in his eyes that reminded me so much of the way Rico looks these days. Like oh the things I've seen, woman. After hosing him down (oh my god so humid), we headed out to get some food and then drop Lyra off before zipping out to Emma's barn.

Hi Charlie!

I kept following along on the map and sort of got a good idea of where the cities were. Though I'm no east coast wizard, I still had to ask a nice lady at the conference where Delaware was. I definitely thought it was further north. 

Charlie had been a bad ass at his event the day before, so he got Monday off. I was still happy to meet him and pet him. Lots of petting. Seriously guys, I've never met a softer horse. He is the SOFTEST horse I've ever pet. I feel like a terrible owner because TC's coat isn't too great (just put him on Omega Horse Shine so hopefully that will help) right now and really has never been the greatest. 

We took a short barn tour while Charlie soaked his tail and ate some food. Emma's barn is beautiful and similar to Austen's in how the horses are kept. They stay in box stalls half the time and then go out in these giant turnouts with other horses (or private) half the time. I think it's so awesome, I really would love to find that sort of a barn around here, but it's just not happening. Oh well, TC seems to be happy in his paddock.

Charlie is strict with his tail conditioning

From Emma's barn, we went down to Baltimore for dinner and wandering around. I was really excited to see Baltimore as well as DC on this trip, even though I feel like I didn't get enough time in each place, it was nice to see a bit of everything.

The first thing that really stuck out about Baltimore is BRICKS. There were bricks in DC too but not as many as Baltimore, pretty much everything is brick there. In someone's house (we're creepy) there was even a brick that was painted to look like a brick house. In California, one small earthquake would crumble the bricks, so our houses are made very differently.

We parked by the harbor to wander around before dinner. I thought that since it was cloudy and had been getting cold at Emma's barn, that it'd be cold down in Baltimore, but it was not. It was hot and humid again, despite the overcast sky lying to me. So I left my sweatshirt in the car, woops.

The harbor is super cool, it reminded me a lot of Boston.

Everything is brick

For dinner, we decided to have crab at a restaurant where we could sit outside and see the water. I've never had crab like... out of a crab before. I'm not the most adventurous eater, but Austen and Emma assured me that they were delicious. And they were... but it was an interesting food experience. I was kind of made not hungry by the process to get to the meat, but it WAS really good. I had a couple and then ate the rest of the food we had at the table. I'm glad for the experience, but you know, maybe I'll stick with crab that someone else has already picked out of the body and put in something for me.

We wandered around the neighborhoods after getting some delicious ice cream. I was surprised by how many places had cellars/basements that you could get to from the outside, and again the bricks. The houses were crammed together a la San Francisco, but not very many of them had garages. It didn't seem like you really needed a car (unless you had a barn to drive to) though.

Tacos, Crab pasta, Calamari, and Austen!

I was hitting a wall by about 10:00 (still surprised I stayed up that late in the first place) after we were hanging out at a bar (and after I got my sweatshirt out of the car because I'm a pansy about weather), so Austen zipped me back to my hotel in DC and I immediately passed out and didn't move once that night.

Tuesday Morning

Tuesday morning I woke up after not quite enough sleep. But I was eager to get to see some of DC before I had to be at my workshop at 12:30.

I mostly took snapshots, not enough time to
try to be good at photography

The weather was weird when I got outside and I was instantly reminded that I actually have wavy hair, not straight hair, as the mist re-curled it from its blown-straight look. It was humid but overcast again, and it seemed like it was raining, but no one else seemed to think that. I stopped to get some tea and a bagel on the way down. I looked at the map and instead of taking the metro, I opted to walk. Walking was actually going to be faster given my location, and I almost never hit my step goal on conference days.

It was funny to see the random buildings as I walked. Oh, there's the US Mint. Oh, look, the department of such and such. Just all these places I've heard of. I guess it's similar in the bay area, like I drive past Moffet Field and Google all the time. See the Golden Gate Bridge at least once a month or so. But there was just SO MUCH. And I left the hotel at 9 needing to be back at 12, I had very little time.

Such a cool city

Ponies!

Priority was to see as much as I could just to experience it and then come back later to the places that I felt like I wanted to see for longer. Unfortunately EVERYTHING fell into the latter category so I was kind of screwed. I was so sleep deprived too, that I sort of felt upset about that. Oh woe is me, free vacation to this amazing place and I can't stay for weeks so I can see everything. Sleep deprivation makes me pathetic lol. Luckily bf really wants to visit at some point, so we'll be back out eventually, whenever we can swing it.

I got to the National Mall before all the museums opened. I walked down to the Washington Monument first, took a few pictures, then wandered back. I briefly stepped in the Smithsonian Museum, like the main building, then decided that I didn't want to spend time inside if I could help it.

From there I went to see the Capitol building, which was cool. I wanted to walk much closer, but again, very little time, must see everything.

Didn't get any closer unfortunately

Once as I did that loop, it was time for a museum. I chose the Natural History Museum and wasn't disappointed. I didn't get to see everything, but I did see the Mammals exhibit and was glad I chose this particular museum to wander around in for 45 minutes. It's ENORMOUS and all of the displays are beautiful. I love that the museums are all free, though I did buy two magnets because 1) always magnets and 2) gotta support the museums.

From there, I had some time to go down to the World War II memorial, where you can see the Lincoln Memorial from. I got some pictures from there and was frustrated to see that my time was up. In my sleep deprived state, I thought about blowing off my workshop and just wandering around all day, but I didn't. I walked back through the eclipse and took pictures of the White House (was kinda not enthused about seeing it, but at least our president seems to be playing golf more often than spending time there, so that made me feel better), found two horse statues, and made my way back to the hotel.

SO MANY PEOPLE

Didn't want to see him at ALL

It was a whirlwind of touring and by the time I got to the conference, I had walked nearly 16,000 steps. In three hours. Damn.

Wednesday Night

Wednesday night, Emma and I met down near the mall and had a drink before Austen found us after she got off work. Then they took me to experience east coast Mexican food!

Now, the thing is that I live in California, so while it was good food, it was definitely NOT Californian Mexican food. But it was still good! We had guacamole and some tacos, then headed out to a bar in a basement (literally had been in a basement like... twice before this trip) to have one last drink. By then I was so so tired so I skipped out, but did get excited about Austen's idea of going to get ice cream at Shake Shack (my first time there) after Emma had to go make her train. It was delicious and we wandered back to the train after eating and talking way too late for me having to be up for an 8:45am session. Oh well, totally worth it.

Pony statue

Overall it was SUCH a fun trip, even though I STILL feel like I haven't caught up sleep-wise. I can't wait to go back because even though I feel like I did so much over there, I really felt like I barely scratched the surface on DC!

Unicorn Acquired

As you know from last week, my mom's unicorn passed his vet check. Maybe not with flying colors, but close enough for what she needs. I'm so so happy for her. She hasn't had a horse that she truly loved riding since she was my age.

So I can talk more about him now that he's hers!

His name is Sunny, he's a 12 year old 15h palomino Morgan gelding. His current owner bought him at 6 and he hadn't done much. She did everything with him though- eventing, dressage, trail riding, horse camping, etc. And he even was giving a longe lesson to a 7 year old until this last Friday when he came home with my parents. The perfect family horse!

He's the cutest thing

My mom knew he was the one pretty immediately. She watched him go with his trainer (event trainer) and then hopped on in her western saddle. My mom isn't the world's bravest rider, she used to be when she was a kid, but she's had some questionable horses (Stretch is great and all, but he had a bad spin that unseated her occasionally) and obviously grew out of that indestructibleness that we all have as kids. When she rides frequently, she's comfortable, but she hasn't ridden since this last summer because of Rico's pigeon fever and just generally not liking Rico very much because he's too lazy and too big.

So she gets on this strange horse and immediately walks, trots, and canters without feeling nervous and without holding onto the horn. She used to hold onto it on Rico... who is the safest horse I've ever ridden.

Maybe not the most athletic and well put together animal, but
that's exactly what we wanted

She brought me out to ride him on the Wednesday before I left for DC and I saw her ride him and was happy to just pack up and go home with him. But I did ride him. She says he jumps so we need to evaluate him as a jumping horse. Nevermind that I've jumped Kate's awesome pony three times and that about rounds out my jumping in the last year. But I figure that it's a good test for him. I'm not bad over fences, I'm balanced and can ride, I just am quite rusty and so fall into old habits that I had previously eradicated when I was in regular lessons.

But Sunny is the definition of a packer over fences. It was SO FUN. I just jumped a little one stride grid and he was perfect given that I'm really not very good at keeping my leg on in lines. He took me to the fence without dragging me to it and never felt like stopping was an option.

After jumping, I took him out on the trails and rode him with his reins on his neck the whole time. He was totally quiet, walked with his head down and while he marched, he didn't feel like he was nervous or worried at all, just happy-go-lucky about being out of the ring and away from work.

From when I rode him

I came back and gave my mom the thumbs up. We scheduled the vet check a week later and then on Friday June 2nd, he came home to the ranch.

Since then, I've ridden him a couple of times to get him settled and my mom is enjoying him immensely. I'm really hoping she will let me steal him this summer for some of the fun stuff that I can't do on TC!

Throwback Thursday- Tails

Another post with little stories about Rico. I know I've been riding TC for two and a half years now, but he still feels brand new to me. I've had Rico for over twelve years now.

This is a picture of my brain nearly ready to explode with information
at my first lesson with Tracey. Rico is also thinking that he didn't know
how hard walk-trot transitions could be. This was the day when I truly
embraced that movements don't mean shit in dressage. You can get through
a 4th level test at a 2nd level collection and probably do fine, but it doesn't
mean that you're on track to do Prix St George. This lesson was the catalyst
that sent us from a mediocre 4th level pair in March 2013 to scoring 65% at
Grand Prix in October 2014. 

This is just a month or two after starting lessons with her. The horse
positively exploded with muscle. Man I love dressage.

I mentioned last time that I was in charge of arena maintenance
when I was riding Rico at the ranch. So here's a day one summer
that I had to take off to bring sand in and redo the footing. Rico's
injuries made me really paranoid so the footing was always perfect.

God I love this picture. This is at Rico's second Prix St George
in extended canter. I just love my tails and how beefy his topline
looks. He was always a good boy in the show ring once as we had
our basics down with Tracey. I could trust him to always try his
best and keep any antics to a minimum when we cantered down
centerline. 

Always the animal whisperer... These magpies (or mockingjays
as we always call them) live at the ranch and are super annoying.
Rico was owned by teenage Megan so he's used to being around
super annoying individuals that insist on riding him. 

Rico didn't get access to his pasture for a
few years while we were chasing my medal.
He had hurt his check ligament in early 2012
after being in pasture, so I ended up pulling him.
He had a big paddock (50 feet long and like
30 feet wide) and I did supervised turnout, but
he didn't get it all to himself until fall 2014.
And he really made up for lost time.

Surprisingly, Rico was an inch taller than TC here, and now they
are the same height. Rico is just a lot more laid back. Rico was
VERY unhappy about his new neighbor this night, I think he was
glad when his little brother was sent off to rehab

He's the best horse. Seriously. He let me do all sorts of weird things
on him and he never batted an eye. He was just sort of like "oh... yah
that's my owner, she's real special, I have to take care of her"