Blast from the past

This was posted on the YT not too long ago. The owner doesn't give me credit for riding, but oh well.  It was the mare's first time going down the centerline (Snowbird Schooling show) and was a wiggly worm. Looking back on it, it's not such a bad test, some good points, some low points (the frock was new and was more like a straight jacket) .

I wish the best for whoever ends up buying her. 

Purple people eater

Greetings from Rolex!

Despite traveling the "great" distance of 20 miles or so to the Kentucky Horse Park, every year I go it feels like I've been transplanted very far from my backyard.

For the last two days I've played hooky from work, but for the last four, I've been working behind the scenes helping take care of the infamous four-star course. I was graciously volunteered for course planting and covering. To give you the scope of the course- it's (I believe) 25 jumping efforts with 5 or 6 complexes. 18 to 20 of those jumps have perennials which can wilt. Because of the bi-polar weather going from 50 to 30 and then from 40 to 70, the flowers needed to be covered every night.

Which took four to five hours. In the rain and cold.

It wasn't so bad. I enjoyed it and the company.

Rolex is also the one time out of the year where I loosen the wallet and shop for myself. This year's deals include a pair of Equissentials full seats (purple!) and 18 dollar stubben reins. My double bridle is complete, and we can start hacking out on it.

I also exposed the boy's mother to all things equestrian. I think she had a good time.

Aside from being distracted for three more days than I wanted, we went back to riding. Yesterday worked on three surfaces, and today we had a lesson. It was easy in comparison, but we worked on thoroughness, which for Sinari can be hard.

Bella also made her seasonal start today. Both biological and physically. She's into her second day after being off of work and on the ground. She's an interesting horse, with physically talented enough to do third level, but recalcitrant enough to be considered part cow. When she's on, she's really on and I think from the time off, she matured, but she, like Sinari is in raging heat. Which bites. So we deal for now.

May is in her final countdown, and bagging up. No veins yet, but getting there with a sagging croup and extended vulva. Still having trouble with S names. Added to the list: Synonym, or Synonymous. It will probably change by next week.

Otherwise, still cleaning up from the show, and it promises to be a very busy week for Derby.

100 horsey things

100 Horse Questions
Share-Please complete this and tag me so I can read about you and your horse.

1. How old were you when you first started riding? Three.

2. First horse ridden: ponies at Snowbird, but my first real memory is riding at Desidario.

3. First horse trotted on: Pony's at Snowbird

4. First horse cantered on: Equalizer

5. First Horse fallen off of: Miss Muffit

6. Most recent horse fallen off of: Sinari

7. First horse you trotted over poles with: Equalizer

8. First horse jumped with: Miss Muffitt

9. First horse who ran away with you: Merlin (in a waterford gag no less)

10. First horse that scared the crap out of you: Jamie

11. First horse shown? Merlin

12. First horse to win a class with: Equalizer

13. Do you/have you taken lessons: too many to count

14. First horse you ever rode bareback: Jamie

15. First horse trail ridden with: Grenada (in Vermont/NH at camp)

16. First Barn: Snowbird, but really it was Desidario

17. Do you ride English or western? English

18. First Horse to place at a show with: Jester

19. Ever been to horse camp? Yes, at Roads End Farm

20. Ever been to a riding clinic? Yes, Tom Poulin, Chris Hickey

21. Ridden sidesaddle? No

22. Horse you hate the most: Didn't hate her, just didn't get along: Jamie

23. First horse owned: Jamie

24. Highest ribbon in a show? High Point

25. Ever been to an 'A' rated show? Yes

26. Ever competed in pony games/relay races? Yes, graduated C-3 Pony Club

27. Ever fallen off at a show: Yes

28. Do you ride Hunter/Jumpers? I did

29. Have you ever barrel raced and done poles? Yep

30. Do you own a horse trailer? What type?: At one point

31. Favorite gait(s): Extended canter

32. Ever galloped bareback? yes

33. Have you ever done dressage? Yeah, a lot

34. Have you ever evented? yep

35. Have you ever mucked a stall? Gajillions

36. Ever been bucked off? Yep

37. Ever been on a horse that reared? Yes, by accident and during Levade.

38. Horses or ponies? Ponies

39. Do you wear a helmet? yes and no

40. What's the highest you've jumped: 4'5 with 5'0 spread

41. Have you ever ridden at night? Yes

42. Do you watch horsey television shows? yep and youtube. Supposted to get RFDTV next month.

43. Have you ever been seriously hurt/injured from a fall? yes, dislocated both shoulders, concussion.

44. Have you ever ridden without anything (no saddle, bridle, halter etc.): no

45. Do you ride in an arena or ring? five days a week

46. Have you ever been trampled by a horse? No

47. Have you ever been bitten? Yep, but by accident most times

48. Ever had your foot stepped on by a horse? Several

49. Do you clean your tack regularly? Well....

50. Ever showed at a breed show? Yes, Arabian and Welsh.


*YOUR HORSE*-or if you have many pick your favorite (I'm cheating here I have my obvious favorite but you know).

51. Show Name:

• Bro A Bryn Siwrnai
• May's Diamond Nine
• Castleberry Chianti
• Bella Breeze DHFK (Owned by Deer Haven)
• Fibonacci K.

52. Barn Name (in order):

• Sinari
• May
• Chianti
• Bella
• three-quarters, Fibbo, Fibbers

53. Any nicknames (in order)?

• Po-nay/the mare
• May-bay/Mamma
• Chi-Chi
• Boo-boo
• .75

55. Goes english or western:

• English
• unbroke broodmare
• unbroke
• English
• unborn

56. Sex?

• Mare
• mare
• mare
• mare
• undeclared

57. Age?

• 9 years
• 7 years
  
• 8 months,
• 6 years
• 3/4's born.

58. Primary Discipline(s)?

• Dressage
• producing babies
• undetermined
• dressage
• unborn

59. Show experience:

• Dressage to second level (schooling third/fourth)
• none
• none
• dressage (intro)
• unborn

60. Good on the trail:

• Yep
• dunno
• dunno
• sometime
• dunno

61. Did you train this horse yourself? With help (all)

62. Vices?

• None
• herdbound/baby bound
• none
• herdbound
• none yet

63. Spooky?

• A little
• a little
• probably
• can be
• not yet

64. Is your horse able to be ridden bareback:

• Yes
• no
• no
• no
• maybe haven't tried
• not even out of the womb.

65. Does your horse come when you call? all of them except the blond Austrian child who is too busy eating her way to china.

66. Is your horse good with children and other horses:

• Does not like kids
• loves babies (equine variety), likes the occasional human
• curious about everything
• very good with kids
• is a kid.

67. Is your horse worked regularly: All are worked on various schedules.

68. Ever a lesson horse? Hell no.

69. Does your horse like treats? Yep!

• Peppermints
• carrots
• apples
• sugar cubes
• black licorice
• Water melon
• Banana bread
  

70. Do you take lessons on your horse? Yes regularly

71. Is your horse easy to work around?
Can be, but most of them can be pushy

72. Has your horse ever escaped from it's stall? Attempted, the rest live out.

73. Do you feel safe on your horse?

• Yes (Sinari)
• yes (Bella).

74. Is your horse hard to worm? No. I can do every one of them without halters.

75. Is your horse good for the farrier/vet?

• Yes/sometimes
• yes/needs to be twitched
• yes/can be a wimp with jabs
• yes/yes
• don't know yet

76. Have you ever won a class with your horse? Yes

77. Have you ever had a moment where you feel really connected to your horse? Yes.

78. Does your horse like hay? LOVES it and they can be picky. Ponies, go figure.

79. Does your horse have special feed or supplement?

• Sinari: Joint/Glazen, 14 percent and alfalfa cubes, mult-vitamin, v. E.
• May: Mare/foal supplement, M-30
• Chi: Hay, M-30
• Bella: Would like to put her on a hoof supplement, Glazen, M-30
• .75: Gets whatever May gets

80. Does your horse often have a very messy stall?

• neat only when she has a window and is deeply banked
• rest: lives outside

81. Does your horse use any special tack? Lots of it, Sinari the most. But everyone has a Qullin's turn out and show halter and shank.

82. Do you use a whip and spurs?

• Yes/no
• yes/yes (bella)

83. Does your horse like to run?

• Yes,
• yes,
• yes,
• no,
• Mummy makes him/her do it

84. How many times a week do you ride your horse?

• Every day
• Every opportunity (Bella)

85. Does your horse have markings?

• Blaze/snip/2 socks,
• blaze, 3 socks,
• Stripe, 2 socks
• Blaze, four socks
• fat blaze, four whites (alright I'm hoping here)

86. Do you braid your horse for shows? Yes and for school when appropriate

87. What color is your horse's halter? Brown leather

88. Does your horse follow you? Usually

89. Can your horse backup? Yes

90. Is your horse's trot easier to sit to or post to?

• Sit (Sinari)
  
• Sit (Bella)
  

91. Have you ever dressed your horse up for halloween? I think I would be dead

92. Describe your horse in one word:

• Talented
• Sweet
• Bouncy
• Spoiled
• Active

93. Has your horse ever produced offspring?

• Not yet (ET in 2010)
• Yes (this will be her fifth)
• No
• No
• No

94. Do you and your horse have "colors"? Green/black

95. What is your horse's favorite treat?

• Sugar cubes
• Dumore cookies
• carrots
• carrots
• whatever mum gets

96. Do you normally lunge your horse before riding?

• no, unless it's an entire session
• no, unless it's an entire session

97. Has your horse ever given a pony ride?

• Yes, she was understanding
• Yes, she enjoyed it (Bella)

98. How many people owned this horse before you?

• Including my mother? six.
• two
• one
• none
• none

99. Does your horse get dirty easily?

• yes, and I encourage her
• very clean for having that much white
• mudball
• can't tell if she's chestnut or brown
• mum makes him/her stay clean

100. What's your favorite horsey memory? Currying and talking to them.

I tag everyone who reads this blog.

Plan of action

I'm ending my winter hiatus from competing and spring season is 'officially on'.

I was supposed to show this weekend at a local schooling show, but lack of organisation and some karma interceded and I was furloughed to the March show. Thankfully due to the management blooper, I avoided traveling in snow, high wind and utterly cruddy weather.

But because the season is on me, I'm feeling the need to get 'show ready'.

I take winter off from showing, namely because I can't afford to hitch my way to Florida (also don't have the pony ready to do that yet) and frankly the weather is so catch-all down here that some weeks you can't ride. Even if you have an indoor.

Season usually begins around middle of January, I pull coggins, get my paperwork/memberships in order (and make a gajillion copies of all), give shots to the group and start outlining my calendar.

It's also around this time I talk to my nutrition people over at McCauley's and now, SmartPak. To see if I need to make adjustments to anyone's feed. Health, performance and good grooming begins from the inside out, so I work with these two companies to really assure that what I'm feeding is working. I also believe in 'feed per need'. If they don't need it, they don't get it. So far, it's worked. My micro-herd is healthy, happy and fit in their prospective duties.

I begin tithing a bit more. Show fees ain't cheap, neiher is getting there. So I decide in advance what I want to do, and I put cash and vacation time (joyous amateur status) aside to get out.

Calendar this year includes:
-Snowbird March
(Sinari)
-Meadowlake Spring I and II
(Sinari)
-KDA I, II and III
(Sinari, Bella)
-T. Poulin Clinic
(Sinari, Bella)
-National Dressage Pony Cup
(Sinari)
-Meadow Lake Fall
(Sinari, Bella)
-MSEDA's annual
(Sinari, Bella, .75)
-RPSI Inspection
(May, .75)

Then I turn to my closet to see what I need. Right now I really need summer breeches (schooling), an extra show-shirt, new 'show boots' and preferably a better stock pin. The geek in me would really like to find a sterling silver Phi, simply because it is the 'golden ratio', and is the mathematical defintion for perfection. Plus it's just so darn cool. Probably won't find it. Plus a bag that holds it all. Rolex here I come...

I would like to seriously focus on my garage at the moment and go hog wild, drop fifty grand I don't have. But in reality I can't do it. I really want the stock market fairy to drop me a trailer.

On the horse end, because I actually ended up in the green this year, I invested in some nice show halters for the ponies. Sinari got her's yesterday. May will get her's in a few weeks and .75 (the foal) got the cutest wee figure eight halter ever. I have baby fever. Also need as always: saddle pads and would like to invest in a thin-line. I need to ask my grandmother to put my logo on my pads. Would like to pick up some sheets.

Because I have three and a half to compete (Bella, Sinari, .75, May), it takes a ton of organization to put through and prep soo....

Then I start upping the training. Right now, it's a lesson a week. I like to school twice under experienced eyes to progress. I begin schooling on a tighter schedule, usually five to six days a week including conditioning runs. Those who are going in hand are on the lunge and/or being ponied here and yon.

All in all, it's shaping to be an interesting year.

When the whole world smiles

I forgot about regular life for a bit during the weekend.

You know, bills, torrential weather, money, collapsing economy and stupid people who don't call your insurance back, the entire usual gauntlet of stuff that occupies my desk on a day-to-day basis it was forgotten for the most part and it was just me and the ponies.

I guess it was the weather that allowed me to breathe a temporary sigh of relief. It's been an unusually warm few days.

Saturday was lesson day at the barn, worked on a number of fun things, pirouettes, half pass, cleaning up transitions to and from. The mare was incredibly game, putting it all in under a thick fur coat and warm weather.

We also had an audience from the past. A couple of friends who knew Sinari when she was younger, and then saw her go for the first time in five years. It's a bit of an ego stroke to hear the compliments.

Also got to hash out some other stuff and gained new perspective.

Sunday was equally productive with mostly canter work, emphasis on the ultra-collected and throwing in lateral movements.

Today though it was drama-central between lame horses, catching up, making plans, website re-design, ect. that the little euphoric bubble I carried throughout the weekend popped into a giant sized headache. Nothing seems to be going exactly as planned.

Then car repair people came in with quotes. Overall I'm looking at a 1,000 with all the repairs ala dealership (that's without the tires). Meaning I'm going to have to become really clever with how I'm going to do this.

I was thinking the obvious first:
-Seatbelts
-Tires
-Breaks

Then the not-so-obvious:
-Bumper
-Hitch

So I'm looking into buying my own parts, and just paying for service. Seatbelts, which would normally retail for 300 total, I know I can get the entire thing for 24 via web. Breaks and pads would run around 100 for parts, and the bumper would run around 200. This is without shipping and doing an initial search.

So 624 plus labor (tack on 200) is still less than 1,000.

Go me.

With that bill coming, another bill is soon-to-be paid off. Cardi's fee is 100 shy of completing out (much to both breeder and my own excitement). This also begins another round of other payments.

Speaking of the pappa to be, he recently cliniced with Debbie McD to a lot of success. Debbie is gaining success with ponies lately and I'm trying to arrange something so we get a pony only clinic series going.

Hopefully, it can come to fruition. But for now I'm back tabling it until some things clear.

Oh baby

We finally had enough break in the weather that we all could work consistently for three days straight and lo... life became a lot better.

Sinari is a rambunctious mess. To the point where there were no breaks. As my grandfather once put it: she really needed to blow out some carbon. So, at 50 something degrees today, I was happy to get her out and gallop hard. It was a well deserved break after Tomorrow and Sunday I have a lesson. There has been some talk of bumping the lesson schedule up to three times a week, which I'm all for at the moment.

May is doing exceptionally well keeping the herd in line with each other. One false move and the blonde children are told exactly where they belong. The old girl can still outrun most of the herd. It's entertaining to watch.

Bella began back this week with just easy ground work. I figured this would be the best way than dumping directly back into under saddle.

I've been thinking a lot about this baby. With this baby, Sinari's proposed in '11, it would make four, maybe five horses. Scary. Five to six total to handle (Bella, Sinari, May, Baby 1, Baby 2).

What worries me the most is financials.

The economy sucks. I'll admit that. I'm standing in the middle of a huge fire sale of bloodline, bloodstock and ponies that normally wouldn't be on the market at prices that I wouldn't normally be able to afford and it really makes me weep because its like being an obease person in a cake factory.

How I'm going to do this without killing myself or my long term goals (farm will be purchased in 2016, would like a new truck to haul with, and continue on showing, schooling at current schedule and open up a business) still remains to be seen. But the whole will/way thing should be kicking in.

First stop: the bank.

Back to the drawing board.

Dressage Pony 2.0

I'm a geek.

Actually a huge one and I'm fairly particular about what I use. You see, I wrote in my Xanga account for YEARS (almost four I believe), and I've recently come to really not like the layout, formatting and the beyond basic services.

So I'm making a switch over to blogger.

My name is Kelly Gage, I'm an Editor, a writer, a web designer/content developer, Head of Marketing and above all-- a dressage rider.

Despite riding ala Amateur status, I'm pretty damn serious and my ponies. I ride six days a week, rain, sleet, snow or shine. I train with some pretty cool people and have the support of some of the best and brightest in their world.

And the ponies? Far from typical too.

There's Sinari, who is a '99 model welsh cob mare (pictured above), who I've been owned by since she was four. Extremely clever, handy and intelligent, she's my top horse at 14.1 hands. She's schooling straight through third, with fourth thrown in there. Recently showed second with the goal towards earning bronze by next year. Currently learning piaffe, passage and cleaning up the changes.

Then there's Bella, a silver-rated haflinger mare standing at 15.0 hands (owned by Deer Haven Farm). She's a willful tank of blond fluff, just starting her career and lucky to have the ride on her. But despite being green-- she's moving fast and tries extremely hard. She's a solid training level right now with learning first. Super comfortable mare. She should be debuing in spring.

Finally there's May- arabian broodmare and .5 (yet-to-be-born foal).

Together we make a team, and this blog is about their progression.