Monday, June 15, 2009
Moving Around
Hi all! Just a quick note that my blog at the Chronicle of the Horse is live, and located here. Thanks for tuning in!
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Photos, And A Big Move
First, the good stuff:
Das Auto
Boots! But you can't see how blue they are so...
... well, this makes it look a little too blue.
They're really, really cool, and they hurt a lot less today than they did yesterday, but it was a good thing I rode Midge in them, because it's really better I don't put my leg on him anyway, and I couldn't have if I'd wanted to.
Das Auto
Boots! But you can't see how blue they are so...
... well, this makes it look a little too blue.
They're really, really cool, and they hurt a lot less today than they did yesterday, but it was a good thing I rode Midge in them, because it's really better I don't put my leg on him anyway, and I couldn't have if I'd wanted to.
But here's the big news: starting tomorrow, this blog will be no more. I know, I know, I just got this blog started, but in the course of the same one week period I got two amazing offers I couldn't refuse.
The first is that starting tomorrow, I'll be blogging for the Chronicle of the Horse. I'll be starting out telling the story of my trip to Gladstone, but they're gearing up for a big web redesign, and they've asked me to play a part.
After Gladstone, I'll also be one of the international riders blogging for the UK-based website HorseHero.com. I'll be joining the ranks of top European riders like Laura Bechtolsheimer, which is a heckova big honor!
Stay tuned to the exact links of my new blogs, and I hope to see you all there!
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Somethings New And Blue
Oh man oh man oh man - the blue boots have arrived.
First: it's really not terribly fair to call them blue, because they're really, really, really dark dark dark navy. Like so dark that I hyperventillated a little when I pulled them out of the box because I thought they were black. So I don't think I'll be as much of a trendsetter as I'd originally thought/feared, which is probably a good thing.
I'm guessing they will not make their debut at Gladstone - they hurt like a MOTHER, and while I could probably get them broken in in time, I'm worried about what that would do to my legs, as I really need those to be in perfect working order. You know, national championships at all. But we'll see.
And oh man oh man oh man, part deux: my new car is sitting in the garage downstairs!
I haggled and hemmed and hawwed, and eventually weaseled my way into a very shiny new (!) Honda Fit. It is a very pretty light silvery blue, and it was WAY fun to drive home yesterday. And it holds all this stuff! It has a proper back seat! Amazing.
So I raise my glass (at this hour in the morning, it's orange juice) to my faithful Volkswagen, with its 140k miles and slowly rotting engine, seats, air conditioning, etc: "Lucky," you were a really great car. See you in Car Heaven. Just hopefully not anytime soon.
Now, it's off to stomp around my apartment in my new boots, hopefully just to the point where my knees are thinking of bleeding, but not PAST it.
(and yes, I will take pictures as soon as I can mooch a camera - mine bit the dust last week!)
First: it's really not terribly fair to call them blue, because they're really, really, really dark dark dark navy. Like so dark that I hyperventillated a little when I pulled them out of the box because I thought they were black. So I don't think I'll be as much of a trendsetter as I'd originally thought/feared, which is probably a good thing.
I'm guessing they will not make their debut at Gladstone - they hurt like a MOTHER, and while I could probably get them broken in in time, I'm worried about what that would do to my legs, as I really need those to be in perfect working order. You know, national championships at all. But we'll see.
And oh man oh man oh man, part deux: my new car is sitting in the garage downstairs!
I haggled and hemmed and hawwed, and eventually weaseled my way into a very shiny new (!) Honda Fit. It is a very pretty light silvery blue, and it was WAY fun to drive home yesterday. And it holds all this stuff! It has a proper back seat! Amazing.
So I raise my glass (at this hour in the morning, it's orange juice) to my faithful Volkswagen, with its 140k miles and slowly rotting engine, seats, air conditioning, etc: "Lucky," you were a really great car. See you in Car Heaven. Just hopefully not anytime soon.
Now, it's off to stomp around my apartment in my new boots, hopefully just to the point where my knees are thinking of bleeding, but not PAST it.
(and yes, I will take pictures as soon as I can mooch a camera - mine bit the dust last week!)
Sunday, June 7, 2009
It Takes A Village
Competing at the upper levels truly does take a village. Yeah, yeah, the cliche to end all cliches, but I'm in continuous awe of my good fortune in amassing such a fabulous team.
This weekend I hosted one of our tri-annually-or-so saddle fitting events with my sponsors and dear friends at Advanced Saddle Fit. Colleen, her mighty assistant Janet, and a krebillion saddles come down to visit us from their home base in New Hampshire for a few days, fitting my clients and other interested parties with new saddles, and keeping an eye on my horses' equipment. As a professional, of course I can ride in just about anything and make it works, but on my own horses I certainly have my preferences for how I'd like a saddle to feel. Balancing that with the even-more-important element of fitting my horses brilliantly is no small task, and Colleen has such a gift for walking that line. As they've developed, all my horses have changed shape - some mildly, some dramatically - and Colleen has been a part of every stage, making sure that my tack is always reliable, always appropriate, and always in good repair.
In addition to our marvelous routine care veterinarian, Dr. Lynn Johnson, we are visited regularly by Dr. Tim Casey, a DVM who "grew up" on the track, and whose practice now specializes in accupuncture and chiropractic care. I am, of course, a big believer in Modern Western Medicine, and what I love about Dr. Casey is that he is not a new age nutter - when the horse needs his hocks done, we do his hocks, but the chiro and accupuncture treatments have done tons for my horses and clients. Dr. Casey believes in prevention of problems, which is aces with me! He's caught a couple of Major Problems in client horses almost before I knew they were there, and he's stellar with helping my young and developing horses from the wear and tear that getting strong and fit inevitably causes. Plus, as a track vet, if it's gone wrong, he's seen it!
My farrier, Don Maley, basically speaks horse, and is a whip for a wonderful Rappahannock County hunt. He breeds ponies, and his precocious little monster of a daughter is a heckofa good little rider. Since Donny started doing my horses, I've lost exactly 0 shoes, and he's come up with some very creative solutions to some client horses' foot issues. I'm so blessed as to have good footed horses, but they're universally better now. Plus, Don's a stitch - we love Farrier Days!
I've been feeding Purina Mills feeds forever, and just when I think things can't get better, they whip out something new to impress me. And I just love my friends at Uckele Nutrition, whose supplements are reasonably priced, palatable, and - most importantly - EFFECTIVE!
And of course it goes without saying that I'd be a Lost Soul Indeed without the regular help I get from Scott Hassler, Pam Goodrich and (hopefully regularly!) Lendon Gray. While they are, of course, brilliant teachers and clinicians, all three are incredibly patient with my hyperventillating phone calls (like, for example, when I think I may have left Cleo's right canter half-halt up at Lendon's, and ohmygod I need it back!) and hypothetical questions over the phone ("So, in the half-steps, do I want to encourage Midge to stay on the spot but allow him to be all weird and Dutch and out behind, or send him forward to try and get the hind legs but blur the line between trot and piffle?" "How about neither?" "Ok!")
I'm so lucky to have such a great team!
This weekend I hosted one of our tri-annually-or-so saddle fitting events with my sponsors and dear friends at Advanced Saddle Fit. Colleen, her mighty assistant Janet, and a krebillion saddles come down to visit us from their home base in New Hampshire for a few days, fitting my clients and other interested parties with new saddles, and keeping an eye on my horses' equipment. As a professional, of course I can ride in just about anything and make it works, but on my own horses I certainly have my preferences for how I'd like a saddle to feel. Balancing that with the even-more-important element of fitting my horses brilliantly is no small task, and Colleen has such a gift for walking that line. As they've developed, all my horses have changed shape - some mildly, some dramatically - and Colleen has been a part of every stage, making sure that my tack is always reliable, always appropriate, and always in good repair.
In addition to our marvelous routine care veterinarian, Dr. Lynn Johnson, we are visited regularly by Dr. Tim Casey, a DVM who "grew up" on the track, and whose practice now specializes in accupuncture and chiropractic care. I am, of course, a big believer in Modern Western Medicine, and what I love about Dr. Casey is that he is not a new age nutter - when the horse needs his hocks done, we do his hocks, but the chiro and accupuncture treatments have done tons for my horses and clients. Dr. Casey believes in prevention of problems, which is aces with me! He's caught a couple of Major Problems in client horses almost before I knew they were there, and he's stellar with helping my young and developing horses from the wear and tear that getting strong and fit inevitably causes. Plus, as a track vet, if it's gone wrong, he's seen it!
My farrier, Don Maley, basically speaks horse, and is a whip for a wonderful Rappahannock County hunt. He breeds ponies, and his precocious little monster of a daughter is a heckofa good little rider. Since Donny started doing my horses, I've lost exactly 0 shoes, and he's come up with some very creative solutions to some client horses' foot issues. I'm so blessed as to have good footed horses, but they're universally better now. Plus, Don's a stitch - we love Farrier Days!
I've been feeding Purina Mills feeds forever, and just when I think things can't get better, they whip out something new to impress me. And I just love my friends at Uckele Nutrition, whose supplements are reasonably priced, palatable, and - most importantly - EFFECTIVE!
And of course it goes without saying that I'd be a Lost Soul Indeed without the regular help I get from Scott Hassler, Pam Goodrich and (hopefully regularly!) Lendon Gray. While they are, of course, brilliant teachers and clinicians, all three are incredibly patient with my hyperventillating phone calls (like, for example, when I think I may have left Cleo's right canter half-halt up at Lendon's, and ohmygod I need it back!) and hypothetical questions over the phone ("So, in the half-steps, do I want to encourage Midge to stay on the spot but allow him to be all weird and Dutch and out behind, or send him forward to try and get the hind legs but blur the line between trot and piffle?" "How about neither?" "Ok!")
I'm so lucky to have such a great team!
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Vroooom!
A meager 82* was the high for today, which was reached at the farm by 10 am. Nice. It made Midgey delightful - I could put my leg on! I decided to work Cleo today, which may or may not have been a good idea, but she was a little tough in spite of the heat; typical day-after-a-day-off behavior. She'll be a star tomorrow. And Ella is in one of those annoying developmental plateaus where she can do everything I ask as long as I don't ask for the carriage and/or engagement and/or power from the hind leg that I want, or she can give me the carriage/engagement/power that I want as long as we just canter or trot around. She's been a good sport about it all.
Speaking of high performance vehicles, my beloved Volkswagen is contemplating giving up the ghost. It's a 2000 Beetle with 140k miles on it, and while it still runs easily, it's had a Series of Small Problems, $500 fixes. At some point I'm going to get past the value of my poor little Bug, so on Monday I had one of my first Grown Up Experiences: car shopping.
I test drove a few things, and I've narrowed it down to the Honda Fit (my favorite), the Nissan Versa (the cheapest), and the Hyundai Elantra Touring (the priciest, but barely, and feels like a luxury car). I didn't even bother trying the Toyota Yaris - the controls are in the center of the dashboard! What's up with that? - and I hated the Scion xD. And I had a MISERABLE experience at a Kia dealership, with a sleazeball agent.
So I made my test drives, and I'm doing my research, finding used options, looking for the best deals on new ones, looking at warranties, and figuring it all out. Want some fun? Google "buy a new car" and try and make sense of it all. Yuck! Give me horses any day.
Speaking of high performance vehicles, my beloved Volkswagen is contemplating giving up the ghost. It's a 2000 Beetle with 140k miles on it, and while it still runs easily, it's had a Series of Small Problems, $500 fixes. At some point I'm going to get past the value of my poor little Bug, so on Monday I had one of my first Grown Up Experiences: car shopping.
I test drove a few things, and I've narrowed it down to the Honda Fit (my favorite), the Nissan Versa (the cheapest), and the Hyundai Elantra Touring (the priciest, but barely, and feels like a luxury car). I didn't even bother trying the Toyota Yaris - the controls are in the center of the dashboard! What's up with that? - and I hated the Scion xD. And I had a MISERABLE experience at a Kia dealership, with a sleazeball agent.
So I made my test drives, and I'm doing my research, finding used options, looking for the best deals on new ones, looking at warranties, and figuring it all out. Want some fun? Google "buy a new car" and try and make sense of it all. Yuck! Give me horses any day.
A Few Universal Truths
1. If you keep the horses in overnight because there is a forecast of possible thunderstorms, it won't rain.
2. If you leave the indoor arena windows overnight, it will rain.
So the fact that it didn't storm last night, having kept horses in BUT windows open, means...?
I am happy to be home for a few weekends in a row. I'm a bit of a mess anyway, but my apartment looks like a bomb went off. I'm wicked behind in my officework. Ella and Midge are all like, um, hello? Don't we count? And I haven't seen a couple of my clients in weeks. So yay for some home time!
Of course, it's 90* and thunderstorming (or, you know, not), but it's good to be here anyway. Cleo and I had a very intense session of playing in the pond yesterday, and we're going to have another day or two of goofing off before we start gearing up for Gladstone. Midge was such a star at the piaffe last week that I think I'm going to leave it alone until Scott is here on the 9th. And I just entered Ella in her first real Prix St. Georges (she did the Developing Test in May, which I think is a way harder test) at a show in July, so I need to start playing with all of those things.
Today will be a fun day because I'm going to start comitting to dates for breeding Cleo. Yay! We will be doing the ET work at a facility only about 40 minutes by trailer from the farm, which is AWESOME, and they've been incredibly helpful in answering all my stupid first-timer questions. We'll get cracking around July 1. Huzzah!
2. If you leave the indoor arena windows overnight, it will rain.
So the fact that it didn't storm last night, having kept horses in BUT windows open, means...?
I am happy to be home for a few weekends in a row. I'm a bit of a mess anyway, but my apartment looks like a bomb went off. I'm wicked behind in my officework. Ella and Midge are all like, um, hello? Don't we count? And I haven't seen a couple of my clients in weeks. So yay for some home time!
Of course, it's 90* and thunderstorming (or, you know, not), but it's good to be here anyway. Cleo and I had a very intense session of playing in the pond yesterday, and we're going to have another day or two of goofing off before we start gearing up for Gladstone. Midge was such a star at the piaffe last week that I think I'm going to leave it alone until Scott is here on the 9th. And I just entered Ella in her first real Prix St. Georges (she did the Developing Test in May, which I think is a way harder test) at a show in July, so I need to start playing with all of those things.
Today will be a fun day because I'm going to start comitting to dates for breeding Cleo. Yay! We will be doing the ET work at a facility only about 40 minutes by trailer from the farm, which is AWESOME, and they've been incredibly helpful in answering all my stupid first-timer questions. We'll get cracking around July 1. Huzzah!
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Video Interlude
I'm about to head out on the town with my buddy Liz Austin (read: danger, Will Robinson!), but a few videos for your amusement:
Ella, schooling canter (she was DOG tired when we made these two, so pardon the missed changes at the end)
Ella, schooling trot, pi-pa and walk
And my personal favorite, Midge making baby piaffe!
Yay!
Ella, schooling canter (she was DOG tired when we made these two, so pardon the missed changes at the end)
Ella, schooling trot, pi-pa and walk
And my personal favorite, Midge making baby piaffe!
Yay!
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