Day 15 (because I like skipping days)

So I seriously suck at sticking to... well anything.  I'm the queen of starting a work out regimen and doing it for two whole days.  Then proverbially hang up my sneakers and never do it again.  It's really no surprise I've stunk at keeping up with this bloggy challenge but the last two topics were just uninteresting to me so I'm going ahead to day 15.

Today's topic is 'If you could speak to any horse, dead or alive, what would you tell them?'

Well while there are a few horses I'd love to be able to say something to I really wish I could talk to Mollie.  Just for a day.

And if I could tell her anything, I'd tell her thank you.

Thank you for loving me all those years ago when I first got you.  Loving me so much that even though I was terrified of you at times I couldn't even think of selling you because I didn't think anything else could love me that much.

Thank you for letting me snuggle with you (sometimes).  I know you hate it but somehow you know when I need it the most.

Thank you for reminding me that I'm not always right.  Reminding me that you make mistakes and so do I, neither of us are perfect and I shouldn't ever think we are.  You prove me wrong every time, and I'm so grateful for that.

Thank you for not dumping my ass every time I was so afraid coming up to a cross country fence I literally closed my eyes and held on.  I'd feel you snatch the bit, speed up, and knew you'd always figure out how to get us over.

Thank you for being sensible.  You've never been the fanciest horse but being able to canter you around a strange field and knowing you'll keep me safe is all I could ever ask for.

Thank you for being there through college.  Thank you for being ok when I couldn't make it out to the barn 5 days in a row and still behaving for me despite the time off.  Thank you for putting up with my emotional highs and lows as I transitioned (and continue to transition) to adult hood.

Thank you for telling me it was time to stop jumping.  Letting me know your body can't do it anymore.  Thank you for building a strong enough relationship with me that I knew exactly what you wanted me to hear.

Thank you for staying with me almost 13 years later.  I can't believe how far we've come, and how many people we've proved wrong along the way.  I love hearing people say "I can't believe you still have her."  I can't believe they ever doubted I'd keep you.

Thank you for letting me ride you places like this on Sunday mornings.  Thank you for reminding me that the best memories are rarely made in an arena.

Thank you Mollie.  

You have no idea how much you've done for me.

Many photos courtesy of Knoopdawg Photography and Polar Square Designs.

Laziness, Part II

Sunday brought me another day of lessons and then going to Mollie's barn... Unsurprisingly, I just didn't feel like tacking up.

I'm sure this had nothing to do with going to a PBR/Line Dancing the night before until 3am....

I eventually got my butt in gear after lessons and took Molls out to groom her and throw her bridle on for day two of our bareback shenanigans.  We moseyed around at the walk for a while and then got going.  She was actually super soft in my hand and was going around nice and round and through the entire time, which definitely makes her easier to sit.  I even set my phone up on a post to video us doing trot/canter serpentines, then went to review it later and realized all it was pointed at was the ceiling.  Go me.

One thing that this bareback riding has been good for is that I can really feel what the heck is going on with her body.  I love my saddle and while it doesn't even have the humongous knee/thigh blocks that most dressage saddles do I still feel like it's "too much" sometimes.  But what kind of rider would I be if I didn't complain about my saddle periodically? ;)  Under saddle her left lead feels SO much better than her right, but bareback she's actually better right.... To the left her entire spine turns in towards the center of the ring (and resultingly stabs me in the left thigh.... fun stuff).  Definitely something to keep in mind when riding with a saddle.

Before leaving the ring I figured I'd get some conformation shots since I'm coming up on her 17th birthday and like to take them yearly.  Overall I'm not loving her top line right now but when I come to terms with the fact that she hasn't been ridden more than on the weekends since the Spring I guess it's not too awful.... She's never really had such a pronounced wither either and I'm not sure if that's just increasing with age or she's lost some muscling over it.  Anyways, here they are.

Not so thrilled with her muscling right now (or the fact that she appears so downhill... Eek! But at any rate I really really like her weight right now.

Appreciate

Some things I'm appreciative of today.

- Lesson ponies and kids were great, I love seeing them make progress.  Letting a kid trot around the ring (off the lunge line) for the first time is hands down one of my favorite things to watch.  Such happiness.

- The fact that my horse is at a weight I really like for the first time in... ever.

Maybe the vet won't even call her obese this year....

- The fact that my horse has had 5 days off and today I got on her bareback and WTC-ed around and she was a perfect lady.  This is all despite snow falling off the indoor roof and crashing to the ground.  The equivalent of gun shots in my opinion.  I jumped every time, she didn't flinch.

- After our ride we hung out with 3 other people from the barn and their horses, just standing and chatting.  It was only 20ish degrees but the sun was beaming into the indoor and we were all standing in the light, just soaking it in and talking horsey things.

Happy Saturday.

Crochet + Pony = Adorable

So I have a confession.  I love to crochet.  Like love it.  Like I spend my nights sitting on the couch in front of crappy television crocheting at the speed of light.  Or an 80 year old crochet-er.  I love it.  I started humbly, making scarves and blankets and the like.  I started to feel really adventurous and took to Pinterest.  I found myself pinning away different patterns, and trying them all out, all while stock piling yarn and hoarding it in every place I could.  I whipped out tons of baby blankets, scarves, even an adorable pair of baby booties.  I was hooked.  And naturally, it was only a matter of time before this obsession turned horsey.  One day in my Pinterest perusing I saw little crocheted animals. They were tiny, and perfectly made, and downright adorable.  My inner child who lusted after every stuffed animal horse I laid eyes on was awakened immediately.  There must be a way to make a crocheted pony.

Enter Etsy.

I immediately searched for patterns and found an adorable one here.  For a mere $5 I bought the pattern, and got to work.  The pattern itself is not too difficult.  As long as you're familiar with crocheting in a round, single crochet, and adding/deleting stitches it's not too bad.  The downside?  It's pretty time consuming.  I started making these ponies and naturally shared them on social media.  After all, I love a good brag.  While I thought they were adorable I was pretty surprised at just how much everyone loved them and in turn, wanted one!  I made them for a few little girls I babysat for, and then Kate from The Adventures of Lucy asked for a Lucy pony.  How could I say no?

Then this happened.

Not only was Kate amazing enough to blog about it, she even posted about it on COTH.  To my disbelief, people from all over the US (and Canada!) were emailing me about them.  This made for a very busy pre-Christmas season, but I couldn't be happier.  I seriously love making these little guys and have loved modeling them after real life horses.

The first pony I made with this pattern.

A birthday present for a pony-obsessed girl I babysit.

This is Mini-Nash.  He was flea bitten gray and had a half an half mane.

My favorite color scheme thus far.  It screams little
girl and I wish I could carry it around myself.

I hope you like the ponies, please feel free to ask any questions about them!  And keep your eyes peeled for a contest regarding these little guys in the very near future :)

Not Day 14

Well I was going to get back on my 30 Day Blog Challenge thing today, but I've been uninspired by the topics lately.  While I wish I had some riding updates for you and could share news of my latest hack that hasn't happened since the weekend.

I'm not on a horse.  But this goat is.

I've been home all day because we had a snow day and while they were great as a student they are even better as a teacher (especially since we're in evaluation mode and I like prolonging the inevitable).  So instead of posting anything remotely horse related I'll post pictures of my commute to work yesterday.  Excuse the fact that there's highway/my car in each frame.

Those are all photos from yesterday (Tuesday) when the snow was all pretty and stuck to the trees in typical winter wonderland fashion.  Today we got 6 inches of snow and then a nasty layer of sleet so everything is slushy and gross.  This weekend promises over a foot of snow so fingers crossed I actually get to ride between now and then!! Having an indoor is awesome, but not being able to get to it stinks.

Memory Lane Monday

This is a spin on Throwback Thursday and I'm contemplating making it a weekly thing... You see, back when I was a tween/teen I thought editing videos was THE COOLEST.  I also rode at a barn with a few other teens and we were constantly video taping each other.  Looking back on those videos I really wish I had that ability now since my riding has come so ridiculously far.  Anyways I figured I'd post a video from time to time of Mollie and I's past.  I still like watching them and if you can stand the over editing and teenybopper music god bless ya ;)

These are some of my favorite clips of myself and Mollie.  Aside from the first trotting clip they were all taken in the fall of 2009?  Or maybe 2010.  I can't really remember.  I assure you the videos only get worse from here on out!

This post is totally a cop-out from my 30 Day Challenge.  Today's post was supposed to be a video of your worst riding but I'm sick of negative posts haha.

Where is my Weekend?

Weekends are so unfair.  I always have these grand plans and thoughts about everything I'll accomplish on two whole days off from work and in reality they fly by and I get nothing done.  I taught lessons both Saturday and Sunday and then rode afterwards so it made for a very horse-oriented weekend.  My lessons on Saturday were interesting as I got to work with some new people and horses.  One of the boarders where I teach is a first time horse owner and while he has some decent riding experience his horse is definitely a handful.  He rescued a 7 year old Standardbred who in his 7 years of life I don't think was asked to do much.  As a result he acts like a baby who has seven years of pushing people around under his belt.  It was really fun to do some ground work with a horse again as I don't do it with Mollie often, and I really look forward to working with him again.  The horse is really quite smart just very distractible.  Once I got him tuned into me I really felt like he listened and tried hard though, so that was rewarding.

After lessons both days I went over to Mollie's barn where everything is under 6 feet of mud.  Granted, the entire state is, but I'll stop complaining because it was 40 degrees today, and my ice coffee didn't freeze while I rode.  Score.

Hello servant.

Got the beast from her paddock, quickly groomed and tacked up only to realize the lesson that was going on in the ring was running a good 20 minutes behind.  So we stood, fully tacked, in the grooming stall and my horse legitimately fell asleep while we stood there.  Please see around 12 seconds in the video below where she literally starts nodding to sleep....

Thankfully she woke up in time for a decent ride.  It was pretty short because I was tired and I like excuses.  If I had anything to complain about she was a little strong but she's had 5 days off so I'm not about to make a fight out of it.

Sunday was take two and I headed out to the lesson barn early for 5 hours of lessons.  Rhode Island decided it would be very foggy.

I'm really enjoying teaching the lessons and have been able to work with some more experienced kids lately which is fun.  As much as I love the little kids it's nice to be able to talk about bending, collection, and even do some jumping lessons.  It makes me wish I was 12 again.  Oh the nostalgia.

Out to Mollie's barn afterwards where I witnessed the most adorable thing I've ever seen.  Any one that knows Mollie in real life knows that she doesn't allow another horse to so much as look at her hay.  Yet somehow her miniature donkey neighbors have convinced her to allow them to eat out of her hay bag.  Feast your eyes on the cuteness below.  The mini donks are named Apple and Tumble and I cannot get enough of them.  Evidently, neither can Molls.

My ride on her today was even better than yesterdays.  Warming up I put her together right away and she was great at the walk but I had trouble transferring that "togetherness" to trot right away.  I decided to let her cruise around at the trot a bit but she was just heavy and not on my aids, which is pretty unlike her.  I decided to some halt/trot/halt transitions and that got her back on my aids relatively quickly.  I'm finding lately that the half pass is a really telling exercise for us.  Sometimes I feel like we have our act together but as soon as I ask for half pass all of our issues become apparent. Heck, I can usually tell that something isn't right just by the turn down the centerline, never mind the lateral movement.  When we finally do get all our pieces lined up however her half passes are getting really nice.  Like, I might not even cringe next time we have a lesson and the instructor asks to see them.