Favorites: A to Z

Summer has officially arrived here in Tennessee.  The weather has been balmy and beautiful, and I was able to spend a lovely week with my mother and grandparents galavanting through the Smokies (pictures to follow eventually).
I absolutely adore summer, though it's making me desperately miss my Beastie.  So, I decided to do an A to Z of all of my favorite horse-related things... with pictures!

Scared of Girls ...

I'd consider myself a "mare person."  Most of my best horse-relationships have been with mares.  I've always felt that nothing beats a mare for heart if you make the connection with her.
I'm sitting here "studying" for contracts and watching the Derby Pre-show, wondering why it is that you hardly ever see any fillies in the Derby.  I know some people think it's because the boys are faster, but I don't think that's the case at all.  Like I said, if you have the right relationship with a mare, I submit that she can out-try any colt there is.  Here's my thought as to why you don't see more champion fillies: they just aren't as profitable as a champion colt, so why enter them in a prestigious race like the Derby?
If your colt wins the Derby, he's a super star that you can now breed to lots of mares in one year, for exorbitant prices.  If your filly wins the derby, she's a super star that can have 1 foal every year, if that.  Sure, your filly might have won you tons of money in races, but she won't earn you as much as a colt once she's retired.  Maybe I'm just being crazy, but it's the only reasonable explanation I can come up with, considering that I don't believe the fillies are inherently slower than the colts.  I think that at the end of the day, it makes money-sense to just run the girls against the girls, because when she has a foal, you can say "look how much better she is than all the other mares who foaled this year AND look at her Derby-winning dad!"

For the record, I think Zenyatta outclasses and could outrun the best of the boys (and she and Dee share a granddaddy, which makes me love her more).

Anyway, I'm just babbling on at this point.  That's just my 2 cents... 2 biased cents.

Fantasy vs. Reality

Where I wish I was this weekend:

Where I am / what I'm actually doing this weekend:

However, while I'm beating my head against a wall getting ready for my Civ Pro exam on Wednesday, you can be sure that Rolex will be live streaming from the USEF network site on my iPad straight through to my TV!  I can't explain how excited I am that this will work... I tested it out on some old videos on USEF, and they seem compatible with my Apple TV!  Does it get any better?  Well.. yes, being there would be better, especially considering how close I am to Lexington, but given that actually attending isn't an option, it probably DOESN'T ACTUALLY get any better.  Maybe next year I can attend...

"Today is the greatest..."

Snapfish was running a deal on framed collages, so I bought this, which is now hanging in my living room...

I think it pretty well sums up the greatest mare*.  On another note, I was speaking with Steph the other day, and she actually said that while she never thought it would be the case, she actually thought Dee was a pretty awesome horse.  I knew she ended up liking her more towards the end, but it was really great to hear her say that she actually finds her to be nice.  I know that I just adore her!  While it terrifies me to think that I'm going to have two mouths to feed when I graduate school [mine and hers, with hers being more important], I have big plans to grow old with this mare.  Somehow, some way.

*I have to qualify that statement by saying she ties Dusty for that title.  

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes

So, I'm not going to say too much yet, because it's all very tentative, but it looks like there might be a life change in the works for Dee.
H has begun working full-time and hasn't been able to ride much, and L is going for her PhD at the moment.  B might know someone who would like to take over the ride for a bit, and it might be an eventer.
I will keep updating as I know more, but there might be some fun changes in store for my baby.

Meanwhile, I'm feeling like I'm on a runaway freight car, heading straight into exam week.  I might have some interesting plans for the summer, too.  But again, I'll update as I know more!

Paddy's Day!

Teachers Part 6 - Sitka

Sitka began life as a combined driving horse. She didn't spend too much time doing canter work - she was new to the sport, and a carriage accident left her too freaked out to really continue. From what I gathered, another carriage horse came at her head on and there was a collision. This made it really fun for me in the small warm-up arena at Rocking Horse, where she had flashbacks and wigged out when other horses came at her.
Anyway, Sitka was hands down one of my best / favorite teachers. She was a TB/Percheron, and got the best of both breeds. She had the laid-back attitude of a draft with the quick reactions and sensitivities of a thoroughbred. She also loved to cuddle and mooch treats by looking at you with great big eyes and pricking her great big ears. Honestly, if I had the money, I would have bought her in an instant, because she was such a good girl.
Now, anyone who has ever watched a rom com knows that every love story starts off with the two people getting off to a rocky start. Sitka and I were really no different. The first time I rode her was more than a disaster. It was actually probably just sad. She was rushing through my hand like a freight train, with a high head and a hollow back. Her canter went in seven directions at once, all while flying in the very general direction of forward at heart-stopping speeds. I was mortified. But, as these things do, it got better.
You see, that first ride was sans-Steph. The next time I rode her, I had Steph giving me instructions from the ground. Of course, this wasn't helping. I still felt like I was being dragged around the ring by a runaway truck. So, ever-patient, Steph got on board to show me what to do. This was a turning point for me. When I got back on, I was suddenly able to feel how it should be, and having watched Steph make it happen, I was also able to replicate it.
Now, that was just on the flat. Jumping still kind of looked like an episode of wild n' crazy kids. I distinctly remember heading down what was supposed to be a 4-stride line, and just knowing we were going to do it in three and that I had no say in the matter. That last stride, I basically just gave up trying for the four, put my leg on, and went with it. Thankfully, Sitka was fantastic on the fly. In fact, that was her favorite thing to do. Pat the ground? Nuh-uh. No sir. We don't sit on our bums and leave from a deep spot. Obviously, this was to become a major talking point between Sitka and I.
Over the next few months, Sitka and I put our noses to the grindstone and really got to work. On the flat, I learned the art of "rattling the cage". "Rattling the cage" refers to lighting a fire under the horses tail and reminding them that YES, you do have hind legs, and they move when my leg closes. For some horses, this takes a little swat with the whip (Dee), or a big swat with the whip (Kes). With Sitka, it took a little bump of the leg. If I really wanted rattle her cage (sometimes she liked to be stubborn and not respond as well as she should be... thus was usually on days when I got on her before breakfast. I think she was just angry at me) I would give a tiny tap with the whip. This usually resulted in a scoot and a little rear, but always managed to get the fire lit.
Over fences, we were working just as hard. As I said before, Sitka never wanted to sit down and pat the ground for a deep one. She would much rather just take the flyer. While this is sometimes acceptable over cross-country fences, it is not so acceptable over show jumps... especially when you have a tight line, or otherwise need your horse to give you anything resembling collection before the fence. To fix this, we worked on lots of little fences on tight turns, short [and I mean SHORT] one-stride lines, which sometimes devolved into Sitka and I bouncing through the last few. Eventually, though, it started to click. We could do the short gymnastic lines the way they were meant to be done, we could do the 10-meter circle to fence exercise like pros, and best of all, we could jump around a stadium course with collection and normal spots in front of the fences. Sometimes she would even take the deep spot.
Needless to say, I was having a blast making all of this progress with Sitka, and when Steph told me that she was coming to Florida and could ride her in a few events, I was thrilled.
Shortly before we left for Florida, Steph got on her for the first time on the flat in a long while, and she actually told me that she was impressed with how awesome Sitka felt! I can't tell you how great that made me feel as her lowly working student who had worked my butt off with this horse.
Once in Florida, we started really gearing up for our first event - Ocala. Fitness was a pretty big concern, since the weather was drastically hotter than it had been at home, and our only "real" conditioning had been doing ring work. So, i accordance, [and because I don't wear one going Novice], I planned to leave the watch in the trailer for cross-country and just let Sitka tell me what was best.
When we got to Florida, Steph and I had our hands full. We had 10 horses with us, and only 3 didn't need to be competition fit [Abbett, a client's youngster named Breezy, and Kes]. I continued to hone my skills on Sitka, and we were doing a last minute scramble to get our canter work in tip-top shape before Ocala. See, she was doing much, much better in the canter work, but she had begun 4-beating it sometimes, and I had to toe a fine line between strung-out and 4-beats to get the canter where it needed to be. I also took her for our first cross-country school as a team. I wasn't sure what to expect, considering how difficult it was to condense and change her canter stride on flat ground. But, much to my pleasant surprise, Sitka was a cross-country machine. She was balanced, responsive, and gung-ho for everything I pointed her at. The best part was that she felt pretty darn fit. This was especially good, since she had begun to balloon up on the fantastic alfalfa we had, and we were doing pretty much all we could to keep weight off of her.