Tomorrow, tomorrow.

Riley in November of 2013, first time through a jump chute.

Tomorrow, Emily and I are taking our lads down to a friend's farm to put them through the jump chute to get some great photos and then ride in her lovely ring (complete with jumps)!! It's going to be gorgeous tomorrow and I need very little reason to take a half day to go ride my pony. I'm excited to see how his jumping form has improved and more so, I'm excited to jump him myself! I feel a little lesson coming on. I'll be there with video/camera in hand so hopefully there's proof!

SPRING SALE!!!! My biggest and best sale EVER!!!!

Waking up to chirping birds and my dogwood tree blooming in front of my bedroom window has put me in a terrific mood. It feels like my winter blues are over and I finally finished another paper cut that I had trouble completing (it's hard for me to work when I'm not feeling inspired).

Here's the most recently finished piece:

PALOMINOS ARE REALLY TOUGH!

If you remember a few months ago I participated in a giveaway... this piece if for Amanda and Simba over at Chasing The Sun.

Last year, around this time I offered an incredible sale on my Etsy shop, but this year I've taken it up a notch!

Boo-yah!

Now's your chance to get a one-of-a-kind piece of artwork of your four-legged friend! Just enter coupon code SPRINGSALE50 at check out for 50% your entire order! This offer is only good Through May 31st, so don't wait!

You can find my shop here!

https://www.etsy.com/shop/TraceALine

EDIT: I added a ton of new listings (I forgot they expire and people went to my shop only to see that everything was sold out!)

Horse-eating monsters... they lurk everywhere!

Several horses on the farm were flat out terrified of this rolled up fencing. Horses!?!

Quick post

I've been working like mad lately. Freelance work is picking up for me (which is great) but I am wiped out all the time. Wednesday, I decided to take a personal day from work knowing that I'd be working a 13 hour day Thursday, regular work Friday, the farm Saturday and more freelance on Sunday. I needed a day to reset. Plus, the forecast was gorgeous! Sunny skies and temps in the 60's!

Emily and I decided to take Riley and her new horse Brody for some fitness work and a hack. They are very similar in some ways (ahem, slow pokes) and they both enjoy having a buddy for hacks. Their field as I have mentioned previously, is 20 acres with a gradual hill. The footing is really nice, especially around the perimeter and it's perfect for fitness work. the only real challenge is explaining to Riley that YES, we do have to work in YOUR field. We started off with some trots on the hill (about a 1/3 of a mile) then we did some sweeping figure eights and the top where the terrain flattens out. Riley was great, forward and in front of my leg and I got some nice contact work out of him at the same time. He was still stiff to the right, but since we had such a huge space to work in I didn't have to nag him as much to bend. I would really like to get him off my right inside leg more, but baby steps. We tooled around at the trot for awhile then we checked the rest of the perimeter for ground hog holes. While we were doing this we saw one go into their shed! We only found one hole in the field, phew... but we're going to have to figure out a way to flag them for us while we're riding and for the owners when they go out there to mow. We got back to the gate and decided to do one big circuit at the canter and both boys were very well behaved. I got into two-point and just let Riley move out in front of my leg. Neither of them got silly at all at and we finished up our fitness work with a long trot at the top of the hill. We took them for a little hack around the property so Brody could practice stream crossing (we are so lucky to have an actual stream to practice with!), but to get there we had to pass a patch of woods where there were about a dozen deer bouncing around. Again, both boys kept a lid on it and Riley led the way down to the stream. Brody was a total champ, though he was more interested in drinking all the water! We walked the boys up to the sheep and rams to say hello, schooled the crossing a few more times and headed back to the barn. Poor Riley was exhausted, he's had to work so hard lately (sarcasm).

Tired pony hacking back to the barn. Riding in a t-shirt!!!!!!

The weather was scheduled to be really nice overnight, so I stuck Riley's sheet on and stuck him out in the pasture that shares a fence line with the cows! Mean Mommy! But he's going to have to get over them at some point. He and Henry high-tailed it as far away as possible. Hopefully, he's feeling less worried about them in general?

Later, another co-op member showed up and she wanted to bring her show horse in to get him ready for Devon in May. He's been living out for the the last 6 months so it was time to get him less feral:) His field is wayyy up past Riley's and it's a good 1/2 mile walk back to the barn, so we schemed up a little plan to drive up there, feed the others, change them into sheets and pony him back. Of course hilarity ensued... it always does with us.

First, we called the boys for dinner. Two came running immediately (the same two that came galloping up while we were hacking past their field and the scary deer (thanks, boys)... but the other was no one to be found. A few minutes later a slightly panicked horse comes bursting through the field with his medium blanket flailing around like a cape. Uh oh. He was understandably panicked and we tried to calm him as he galloped across the field. As he past the shed he must have stepped on the blanket and was going so fast that the entire thing ripped off leaving a small piece around his neck, he jumped a pile of sticks like a seasoned eventer and came up for his dinner. As soon as we realized he was fine and not going to tumble or kill himself we all burst out laughing. I went to retrieve the remainder of the blanket from the field and pull the piece off from around his neck. The blanket is dead, but no one was hurt in the process! Ahhh, horses! It was clear once I spread the blanket on the ground that he had gotten the back caught in a tree probably from itching against something, he got caught and then panicked. Luckily the straps all broke the way they should.

What was left of his blanket. This was hanging around his neck. Very high-fashion, no?

We grabbed her show pony and she sat in the back of my car while we ponied he from there. He's apparently an old pro at this and walked and trotted along with us. What a good boy!

NBD. The same wild 6 year old that cooled himself out last week in the indoor!

That's all for now. I'm hoping to get some riding/lunging in tomorrow and maybe I can get Emily to put a training ride on Riley on Sunday since I'll be working.

Ps. All this talk about working has got me thinking about a post regarding affording our horses, board, co-ops and the like. I wonder if that would be interesting for everyone???

On the horizon

I'm feeling quite confident about Riley's progress so far. We've had some ups and downs but that is to be expected of a green horse (I mean, he essentially had all of last year off). We're looking ahead at some little things to go to and so far we have:

*Brooklawn Paper Chase on April 5th (hopefully the footing is okay by then).
*Cheshire Pony Club Paper Chase on April 12th (this is one of my favorite paper chases and we can hack there from the farm, it's only 1.2 miles away!)
*I would love to get a xc schooling in before I go to an event, but if I can go to both paper chases, that should cover us on jumping little, solid things)
*Emily and I are debating between the Old Hope Schooling Trial (13th) and The Bucks County Horse Park Schooling Trial (18th) as our first proper outing of the year. I think we are leaning toward the Bucks event as it is in the afternoon on a Friday and will be logistically a little easier on both of us.
*Possibly the CT at Boyd's on the 26th

So, do I enter in the introductory or starter division at Bucks? Both have really simple dressage tests (walk-trot), neither xc is timed and is meant to be extremely inviting, stadium is either 14"-18" or 18"-2'. I guess I'll see how he is over the next two paper chases and make a decision. I haven't jumped in forever, but he also isn't the kind of horse that jumps you out of the tack, so I am not too worried about him being overly exuberant. I am slightly concerned he may have trouble leaving his buddies, but if we can go schooling before then I can probably test that out a little.

Feeling nervous, but very excited!!!!!

First trip to an indoor

Don't worry bud, no cows where we're going today

It's been raining (sorry, I know all I post about is the weather, but for real winter, give it a rest) for 2 days non-stop. I was really looking forward to warmer temps but the weather had other plans. I brought Riley in right after he ate to give him a break from the rain and pull his sheet so it could dry off in the tack room. By the time my chores were finished it was effectively down pouring and I didn't feel like hacking out in that crap. One of my fellow co-op ladies was around and she mentioned maybe heading over to her friend's indoor. She was only bringing one horse so I tagged along hoping that she'd be able to help me with any shenanigans that Riley might pull considering he hasn't been off the property in months and he's never been to an indoor. *Plus I could jump crew for her, win-win. The indoor is on a spectacular property just 15 minutes from us in beautiful Chester County. Riley was moderately upset about the giant statue of the pig when he unloaded, but he settled down pretty quickly. He followed behind his buddy up to the arena snorting at everything, so exciting for the baby horse!!! The indoor has state-of-the-art footing, it's made from a mix of fibers and is completely swoonworthy. I've never ridden in an arena that nice in my life!

Go away. I'm busy.

I led Riley around for a few minutes so he could take in the lay of the land. His biggest concern was definitely the mirrors.

Who is that cute horse?????

I got on after another stupid discussion about what we are supposed to do at the mounting block. Jerk. We tooled around on a loose rein for a while letting him see everything (spooky cones, lots of jumps, random things in the corner, scary mounting block, his cooler that I stuck on the rail, oh, and his reflection!) My friend gave us a mini-lesson as I was unsure I'd be able to give Riley a confident ride. She's really good at getting me to focus at the task at hand and get me to just sit up and ride, after all, I am going to be the one doing most of his training and I need to feel like I am capable of dealing with his greenest moments. He did give me one or two silly spooks when we were trotting toward the mirrors, but other than that, once I got him in front of my leg and really moving he settled pretty well. She had me plant my inside rein in one spot (and shorten up my reins which are always to long) and drive him forward pushing him into the corners and into my outside rein by simply moving my inside leg. He caught on to this idea quickly and suddenly I had a really nice horse underneath of me! We took it up a notch by adding 10 meter circles at each corner which really helped work on his bend, and also demanded that I sit up and stay balanced, as we came out of each short side she'd have me lengthen his trot down the long side of the ring then balance again and make a 10 meter circle. My takeaway was that the more impulsion I get out of him, the easier the hard stuff (bending, relaxing his back, stepping under himself) will be. Breaking things down into bite size little pieces really works well for him so he doesn't get frazzled. I was proud of myself for sticking with him and not just handing him off when he was nervous. I know I have the skill, I just need reinforcement.

She worked both of us pretty hard and gave us a little break. I hopped off and let her school his canter (she's never ridden him and I was also planning on having her jump him). She was able to get both leads without issue and even got some balanced 20 meter canter circles too! Then, the fun part... She jumped Riley through his first gymnastic and his first "real" oxer! Outside of paper chases and natural fences he's barely done more than a cross rail. I was so eager to see how he'd take to to colored poles! It took a few tries over the X to get him motivated to do much more than a half-hearted effort, but she had impeccable timing with the crop and was able to get her point across that, yes, you DO have to lift up your legs and JUMP! *Sorry about the quality of the photos, it was darker in the arena that it looks and these are screen grabs from some video:)

Wiggly baby through the gymnastic, but boy is he honest!

Knees! Good boy!

So cute.

First time over a real oxer. This had a rail across the top diagonally. Love his expression.

He got a little smack going over this one and locked onto the next fence (MUCH bigger) a few strides away, she had to pull him off it!

Third time around, happy boy.

In the other direction, love his shape over the fences!!!

We didn't over-school him, just ran him through a few exercises (like a vertical on the other side of the ring back around to this oxer)and he went though the gymnastic maybe 5-6 times, plus a few single fences. It was set as trot poles, vertical, one stride, vertical, three strides to the last vertical (none of them were high) and while he was wiggly (he was a little confused that he would jump something followed immediately by another fence, the nerve). My friend commented that Riley has a lot of potential and that he's honest. He has literally never said no to me or stopped at anything (he'll get over the jump no matter how pretty, though it's never unsafe). She said he'll definitely benefit from some free-schooling as well as adding in gymnastics to help him get a little quicker with his feet. She also thinks that XC schooling will improve his respect over fences, he's good with his knees, but is very economical and he'll learn to respect jumps a little more when they don't move:) He's definitely the kind of horse that learns from his mistakes and he came through the gymnastic a little discombobulated one time taking down two of the verticals and the next time around he gave them a healthy effort! After we were both done, we cleaned up the arena and reset the jumps while the horses cooled themselves down. What does that mean you ask?

 Just a couple of 5/6 year old ottbs following me around the arena cooling themselves off. Best ponies.

Ahhhhhhh! Too much cute!!

Riley's JC registration photos!

Brb, dying of cute.

The ears!!!!!

Tiny baby tail!

Sporting his signature mohawk. So butt high!

Such a cute little guy.

History lessons (well, for me)

Riley's Pedigree

I thought I'd add this for comparison sake. Very similar conformation indeed! *If I had to pick, I'd say Golden Missile has a nicer shoulder.

I'm not going to pretend to understand race records (beyond the very basics) or much about breeding and how it plays an important role in progeny, however when I bought Riley I knew he had both incredible breeding. Today (in a moment of work boredom) I thought I'd dig a little deeper into both Riley's sire and Grand sire.

First, his sire is Golden Missile.

Emily told me the other day to look him up because Riley looks so much like him!

Not a shabby race record! And Mike Smith was his jockey!!!

 I didn't know too much about Golden Missile until today but he had a wildly successful race record that spanned several years (he only ran once as a 3 year old). His progeny have auctioned for record-setting prices as 2 year olds. I can see now where Riley gets his conformation from, but his head is certainly not as refined as Golden Missile's.

Oh, and just for fun I looked up some 2009 foals from the farm Riley was bred at (sadly none of him), but I have a pretty good idea of what he may have looked like as a foal!

These two both have big blazes and one big sock!

&%$*^%$*$!

Riley's grand sire hardly needs an introduction... AP Indy.

And now I see where Riley gets his booty.

An equally impressive race record, earning over $270,000 a start.

A few fun facts about AP Indy:
He won the Belmont stakes and the Breeder's Cup Classic in 1992 (along with other stakes wins), he was entered into the Kentucky Derby the same year but was scratched the morning of the race. He was named horse of the year in '92 and leading sire in America in 2003 and 2006. He was sired by triple crown winner Seattle Slew out of a mare who was sired by another triple crown winner, Secretariat. He was the top priced yearling of 1990 at 2.9 million. In 2000 he was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame. Some of his most famous progeny include Bernardini, Golden Missile, Mineshaft and Rags to Riches.

What I have been told about AP Indy progeny is that they have excellent temperaments and tend to be quite trainable. My vet commented during his PPE that the "class" comes through on these well bred horses. If by class, she means class clown, maybe!

I feel quite honored to have a horse that comes from such an amazing family tree! AP Indy is no longer producing foals, he was pensioned in 2011, but I'm always on the look out for more grand babies! A friend of mine just picked up a 4 year old one off the track!

 That's all for now, back to my work day!

Training rides

Riley has had two training rides Friday and Saturday, so I decided to take the day off from riding (even though I was planing on going for a hack today). It's been a long time since I took a weekend day away from the barn and I slept in (highly unusual) but completely delightful.

Friday Emily rode Riley and said he felt really great. The big difference between where he was 6 months ago and where is now has a lot to do with his feet. He is still stiff tracking right, but I think once we unlock him a little he won't find it as hard. She was even able to get him to pick up the right lead canter 3 times. Saturday I planned to have her ride him again so I could see how he's looking under saddle and she could show me some tools to work into his routine. He's very focused on the cows and utilizing lateral work and some shoulder-in helps get his brain back. Emily commented that he feels much, much more forward than he did last year and that letting him move out and settle into the contact works best. He's very willing to find contact at the walk and trot but still needs work at the canter. I think once our transitions are confirmed the rest will come. Emily also said that she thinks the Pessoa had really helped his balance and that his willingness to utilize his topline.

Warming up, Emily commented that sitting the trot stabilizes him (and that he has the most comfortable trot ever!)

His concentration face.

Moving out beautifully and relaxed along his topline.

You can see there's more tension tracking right. Emily really drove him forward until he relaxed.

Stretching down into the contact. He loves doing this!

Proof! He DOES have a right lead canter and it's adorable.

YAY!

My takeaways from the ride were to keep his confidence up (lots of verbal and physical praise), give him lots of breaks between the hard work, use lateral work to help engage his hind end and to help him understand moving off my leg instead of leaning on it (he was not able to move off my leg at all last year, continue to encourage forward, always forward (which will help with the nappy behavior), lots of changes of direction keep his brain busy. Oh, and to ride him with a dressage whip so I can give him little taps behind my leg without losing focus. *He actually kicked out at the whip when he was being stubborn about picking up the right lead canter!!!

I have a few more training rides banked with Emily, and then I'm going to start paying her to ride him once a week. I'll be able to ride/lunge him at least 3 days and I think that will be plenty to get him ready for some schooling events. I want to at least use the Pessoa once a week to continue the improvement with his straightness and topline. We'll keep our serious rides on the shorter side 30-45 minutes and keep hacking out. 

I am really impressed with how he looks, being in a 20 acre hilly field has been good to his body. His condition is really great for a horse who essentially had the winter off.

**Also, just in case the horse world isn't small enough, I was in the city last night at one of my favorite bars and I chatting to a couple standing behind us... the girlfriend happens to be an advanced rider who sold Emily her most recent horse Brody!!!!! Whoa.

Double post!

Hi all,

I really wish I could have posted on St. Patrick's day, with it being Riley's birthday and everything, but well... the day got away from me. Instead, you get two posts in one!

Riley officially turned 5 on March 17th, so I made him a little cake and spelled out "5" in peppermints. Oh, and there was Guinness. 

I was helping out with stick removal around the barn and it was really cold and windy, so I thought I'd give him a day off from "work" and just bring him in and spoil him a little. When I was finished helping out around the barn I saw that he was right next to gate so I ran down and grabbed him (in a 20 acre field this was a blessing)! I stuffed him in a stall with a handful of grain and a flake of hay. I got his birthday treat ready and brought him out to investigate.

Om nom nom... he careful picked off all the peppermints first.

Don't look at his disgusting muddy legs, treats took priority.

Then I shared a Guinness with him, which he was unsure of:

Oooooh.

He slurped a little but was pretty suspicious.

We also got a new addition to the barn... a little calico named Petunia. She's a friend's cat who was having severe asthma issues with her so the owner of the farm graciously offered to let me bring her out to see if she'd make a good barn cat. Luckily, the owner is also very fond of white cats and despite being calico, she's mostly white with calico points. For now she's living in the tack room (which is heated, while she gets acclimated), soon we'll move her into a stall with the dog crate I've been using for her and her litter pan so the other cats can get to know her with any squabbles.

Petunia, relaxing in the sun under the window.

If you have any advice on transitioning a city cat to the country life please let me know!

Yesterday, I took the day off so I could hold Riley for the farrier. It's been a while since I've been there to hold him and I just wanted to see what he thought about his progress. Overall he said his feet look great, his soles are MUCH improved but his hooves grown painfully slow (at the least the fronts). We've been able to go 7 weeks between trims and we're going to reevaluate on April 24th to see if he'll need shoes once I want to start competing him. While is is very comfortable on asphalt, he still takes a ginger step here or there on gravel and I don't want to bruise him unnecessarily. We'll get road hacking to improve his tolerance in the meantime. Things have gone from super snowy to ridiculously muddy and there's no point in putting shoes on now if he's comfortable and the chances of him pulling a shoe are high.

After his trim, we did a little bit of pessoa work and again, only one major meltdown about tracking right. He's getting better and neither seems to lose our cool anymore (which helps). I can reset him rather easily now and get his brain back in order. Keep in mind, we don't have a "ring" yet, so our current riding area is hilly and makes lunging, interesting... though I think in the long run it will help him with balance on uneven terrain.

He definitely had his thinking cap on yesterday. Look at that booty! he's going to be so cute once he's fit.

Good boy. Not as forward as I would like, but moving freely and accepting the pessoa.

PS. Sorry that my photos of him lunging are always tracking left, it's much easier to take photos with the lunge line in my left hand! Not to mention we usually have discussions about tracking right and I have to keep my eye on him at all times.

*There's been some chatter about heading over to Boyd's place for a little schooling show at the end of April, they have an elementary level that would be perfect for us to get our feet wet!
**Also, Emily is going to hop on Riley Thursday to make him ride past the scary cows... yay!

You win some, you lose some.

my favorite tree at the farm

Saturday was one of those perfect days where I would have killed for a buddy to go for a 3 hour hack with. Sadly, my riding friends were busy so I blasted through my Saturday morning chores so I could get down to business. Riley made me walk the length of his field to get him and he was NOT happy about coming out of there. Now that he's back in a program, leaving the field = work and so he has been blatantly ignoring me when I call him. The spring grass is starting to come in and the boys are thrilled to be grazing in the sun instead of standing knee deep in snow. I had to bribe him down with peppermints, cheeky boy! I do make a habit of tossing him a flake of hay or some grain when he comes in so it's not always a terrible experience (ahem, sarcasm). I thought we take advantage of the finally stable (ish) footing and at least get a productive session in with the Pessoa. Sadly, I've only been able to use it on him three times (this time included). He still fights it a little, but at least I got him to track right consistently with only ONE debate. So, minor success there.

In the spirit of Sprinklerbandit, I did look this up today (this doesn't include anything recognized)

2014 Unrecognized Events/Cross Country Schooling

Unrecognized Events:

4/13   Sun   Olde Hope
4/18   Fri   Bucks County Horse Park
4/27   Sun  St. Augustine Pony Club at Unicorn Farm
5/04   Sun  Fair Hill
5/11   Sun  Plantation Field
5/25   Sun  Olde Hope
5/30   Fri  Bucks County Horse Park
6/01   Sun  Horse Park of NJ
6/08   Sun  Plantation Field
6/13   Fri  Olde Hope
6/20   Fri  Olde Hope
6/20   Fri  Bucks County Horse Park
6/22   Sun  DVCTA at Carousel Park (DE)
6/28   Sat  Fair Hill
7/06   Sun  Bucks County Starter
8/08   Fri  Olde Hope
8/10   Sun  Bucks County
8/24   Sun  DVCTA at Carousel Park (DE)
8/31   Sun  Olde Hope
9/01   Mon  Bucks County Horse Park Starter
9/13   Sat  Fair Hill
10/5   Sun  Olde Hope
10/5   Sun  Horse Park of NJ
11/1   Sat  Plantation Field
11/2   Sun  Bucks County Horse Park
11/22 Sat  Bucks County Horse Park Mix & Match

Cross Country Schoolings:  (Confirm times with venue)
March Madness at Unicorn Farm!  Check St. Augustine Pony Club every weekend in March to see if course is open due to weather!
3/30  Sun  Olde Hope (also listed in events, set courses, times given)
4/22  Tues  Fair Hill
4/26  Sat   Fair Hill
5/06  Tues  Fair Hill
5/20  Tues  Fair Hill
5/24  Sat    Fair Hill
5/26  Mon  Horse Park of NJ
6/09  Mon  Plantation Field
6/17  Tues  Fair Hill
6/30  Mon  Horse Park of NJ
7/01  Tues  Fair Hill
7/06  Sun   Fair Hill
7/29  Tues  Fair Hill
7/29  Tues  Horse Park of NJ
8/12  Tues  Fair Hill
8/23  Sat    Fair Hill
9/02  Tues  Fair Hill
9/16  Tues  Fair Hill
9/27  Sat   Fair Hill
10/12 Sun  Horse Park of NJ

There's more not listed on here (including places that always have XC schooling time available, but this is exciting!