Month: November 2017

Competition

GFPC Fun Show: My Turn

roamingridersite

There is media! So much media!!! While I have a ton of thoughts and feelings about how this show went I think I’ll just run it via pictures here and then blabber on in a later post.

After waiting a million years (ok, it was more like 2 1/2 hours) for class #16 to be up next, it was time to wake Gem up and head in for the 18” jumpers. We were the 5th ones in, she entered and immediately tried to spin around and leave again, and it went….ok…ish. Here is a run through:

My course. I sent a text to Trainer and she sent back “courtesy of yours truly”. I knew it too. This had her written all over it especially fence 1 which was a super tight and short turn off the rail on an angle. She has had me work on that in our lessons and I sucked at it. 

Ok Gem this is it. Let’s trot down the long side and head to fence 1 in a good rhythm.

Nah, I’d rather spook at those people in the bleachers.

Shit! Was that the bell? We aren’t anywhere near fence 1. I’m going to get eliminated. Go Gem go!

We then proceed to rush to fence 1 and while Gem went over she whacked it really hard and rattled me.

No idea why she would have whacked it. I mean, this is perfect jumping form. 

Ok. Fence 1 is over. Yay! Oh shit. I forgot to turn to fence 2. Maybe she will do it if I shove her at it and give her absolutely no room or warning.

Ha! No way am I going over that bright pink fence. Sorry lady. Try again.

This was a much needed wake up call for me to focus and ride my horse. I wasn’t angry with her here. This was 100% my fault for forgetting where to go and jamming her at it. I do love the look on her face though. 

Sorry Gemmie! My fault. Let’s try that again.

Second attempt she went over no problem. My heart was still racing and my nerves were acting up big time, but we got it done.

Ok…now remember where fence 3 is. Sit up and keep her under control.

We finally got our act together over fence 3 and I started to look for my fences and actually ride.

Huh. This isn’t going so bad. The height isn’t scary and Gem isn’t being too bad. Maybe we won’t die.

By this point, gem was beginning to understand what we were doing out there and began looking ahead for the jumps. This makes it so much easier for me to ride her.

Look at that. Another fence behind us and we are rolling along. Maybe if I take my leg off she will slow down.

Gem hated this fence. Maybe she hates the color yellow?

Oooookay….we nearly had a second refusal at fence 5. Never, ever take my leg off. Fence 6 should be easy but then it’s a tight bend left to 7. Will we make it?

Fence 6 wasn’t really an issue, but the turn to 7 was short and required a lot of accuracy.

You’ll see how ugly fence 7 was in the video because I never got her lined up right, but over it she went and then straight to 8. I don’t have shots of those.

Fence 9 is the most decorated. Two left. We can’t screw this up now. Jump Gem, jump!

I was elated to be at fence 9 and rode aggressively. It never occurs to me that Gem requires that much aggression to jump until I am nearly done with my course. Some day I’ll learn. 

Yes! One left!!! Oh wait. I still have to ride. Turn! Turn!

I very nearly forgot to turn to this one too. Stupid brain.

Gem got a million pats, an emotional hug and some time to nap before the 2’ jumpers four classes later.

Here is the video so you can witness us in all our squirrelly glory. We finished I believe 1 full minute slower than anyone else. Oops.

I nearly bailed on the 2’ class. Once they reset the fences and added filler to nearly every single one, it looked daunting. Then I remembered that the standards start at 1’9” and that meant the prior class wasn’t really 18” and this would only be 3” higher. No big deal, right?

When I entered the arena, I cut through the center more to avoid my panic at making it to fence 1 in 45 seconds. Gem was much more settled this time around and I silently hoped she’d realize the height had gone up.

Ok. Let’s get this done. Line her up. Oh shit! That looks high and there is a bunch of fill. Quit looking at the jump. Quit it. Well crap she ran out.

It’s ok Gemmie. My fault. Let’s get this done. It’s only 2’. Leg on. Look up. Go!

Again, the run out was all my fault. I backed off and got scared which left Gem high and dry. The second time though I put my big girl panties on. 

Do not forget to turn for fence 2. There it is. Leg on. There is no filler. She can do this.

The jumps were raised and I rode much more aggressively this round which made for a prettier picture overall. 

Wow. 2’ isn’t so bad. We can do this. I honestly believe we can do this.

No issues here
Or here!

Ok. Remember fence 5 was sticky last time. Keep that leg on. Wait. Where is she going? Why is her butt to my left. Move it Gem. I mean it. Get your flying bay hurt over this jump!

Fence 5 was an issue. You’ll see in the video how she tries to contort her way out of it. Thankfully, Trainer had prepared me for this and I was committed to making this round work

Was that a refusal technically? Is that our second? Oh shit again. There’s fence 6 and I’m not paying attention. Focus, Sara. They added a plank. Why am I staring at it? Quit staring.

Ugh. Another refusal. My fault again. Is that number 3? Am I eliminated? I didn’t hear a bell. I’ll just keep on until they tell me to stop.

Gem did go over it the second time since I stopped staring at the plank and asked her to jump it. I don’t have good screen shots of 7, but it jumped just as bad as the last time. I got jumped nearly out of the tack but I was actually having fun by this point and didn’t care.

Ha! I’m having fun. FUN! That’s new. Fence 8 is easy. Come on Gem! Let’s finish strong.

There is that beautiful jumping form again. her knees are cute though. Just don’t look at her head. 

Wahoo!! Fence 9 has very bright flowers and we have 3 refusals already. No room for error. Go Gem. Jump the jump. Let’s enjoy the end! Grab mane and go!

I was so worried she would back off this jump. I kicked her good and grabbed mane. 

 

One last plain fence and we are done. Wait…am I smiling? While jumping? On Gem? Weeeeeee…….

This is my new all time favorite picture. Ever. I’m smiling. On Gem. Over a fence. 

There are so many thoughts to share, but for now here is the video of the 2’ round (a lesson on how to make 10 fences take over 2 minutes to jump) and I’ll sort the rest out later.

Uncategorized

NaBloPoMo Day 6: Favorite Tack and Riding Clothes I Own

roamingridersite

Tack hoarder I am not. I own one bridle, one saddle pad for schooling, one for shows, and two low end but functional saddles. On my part I own two pairs of schooling tights and one pair for showing. My tall boots are synthetic and my paddock boots I bought on consignment for $15.

I grabbed this bridle off FB for $20

I’m not really sure I have a favorite of anything. My stuff is functional and safe.

For breeches I tend towards tights instead of real ones due to fit. After spending hours trying on different breeches only to find that none fit me in all the places, I gravitated towards tights and haven’t looked back. My brand of choice is Irideon. My issential tights have taken the abuse of all my conditioning plus competition miles over 5 years and still look brand new. You can’t beat that for longevity.

Issential riding tights in black, Just Chaps in black mesh and $15 no name paddock boots

I tend to ride in whatever shirt I feel like putting on and none are riding specific.

My saddles are both Thorowgood T8, part synthetic and part leather. They fit Gem well and take the abuse I throw at them. It’s not like I don’t want a better saddle, but Gem is 19 and insanely hard to fit. I don’t see the point in buying anything more expensive at this point in our lives since what I have fits her well.

Thorowgood T8 jump saddle
Thorowgood T8 dressage saddle. Ignore the pissed off mare.

Um, that’s about it. I do adore all my endurance gear which took me several years to perfect, but that is all now sitting in storage.

Oh wait! I do love my cross country vest. It’s an Airowear Mesh vest. That reminds me. I need to do my review of that.

Love this vest. Will do a review ASAP
Competition

GFPC Fun Show: Wyatt

roamingridersite

This was a very last second idea. I wasn’t even sure if I needed to braid, but it was at my home barn and they held a lead line class for Wyatt too so it seemed like a good idea.

Wyatt woke up bright and early, threw some flip flops on and marched out of the house saying “We need to go load up!” Never mind he wasn’t wearing any pants. And it was 630 am with a 9 am start a half an hour away.

We got him settled down a little while I got myself around and went to get Gem to officially load up. Then we hit the road!

Having never been to a h/j show before, I had no clue what to expect. We got there ridiculously early, registered and then hung out for about an hour before I tacked Gem up. I wanted to have Wyatt experience a warm up and his class was #6 on the list.

By the time we made it to warm up, he was nearly jumping out of his skin with excitement. It took a bit to adjust my stirrups to his size (mental note, but kids stirrups) and then he clambered on and we went for a walk around the warm up. Thankfully it wasn’t busy or hectic and we had a nicely relaxed walk.

Wyatt kept asking to trot because all the big kids were trotting. I was tempted, but my main goal for him was to have fun and falling off in warm up would not have achieved that.

When his class was called he lit up. I led Gemmie in and we began our walk around the arena. I made a point to walk her past any jumps that looked particularly scary so she could see them before our classes. Not cheating. Being smart!

The judge had us walk one direction, change, walk the other. As we went past the jumps Wyatt kept asking when we would jump them. Ah kiddo, already braver than me!

The judge was really awesome, not that Wyatt registered any of it. They announced that it was too close to call and for us to take another lap around. After that we lined up and the judge came out to say hello to each rider and hand them a blue ribbon. Wyatt was oblivious to the fact that everyone got blue and threw his hand up yelling “I am the winner!”

He then attached the ribbon to his shirt and refused to take it off again. His smile was the biggest reward I’ll ever get and it made the whole day worthwhile.

Uncategorized

NaBloPoMo Day 5: Your First Fall

roamingridersite

This flows perfectly from yesterday’s post. Over all the years, miles and reckless galloping over hill and dale with my Aunt and Uncle I never fell off. Not one single time in over 5,000 miles of riding out in the world. Amazing really and a testament to the horses the purchased for me to ride.

The came Gemmie. Oh Gemmie. I can’t recall the exact first fall I had. There have been so very many with her. Getting dumped was nearly a daily occurrence in the beginning. Hell, I fell off during the 30 mile Ride and Tie Championships last fall.

While I can’t remember the first one, mostly because it wasn’t very memorable likely occurring in the indoor arena in OH during a regular evening trying to ride her, I can remember quite a few of the ones that followed.

There was the time the “trainer” at the training barn I had Gem at was teaching me a lesson with jumps included (why she thought a rider/horse team who couldn’t even walk safely was cleared to jump I will never know) and kept jacking up the jump every time we cleared it and circled to come again. The last time it was made into a wide oxer at 3’ and since I wasn’t such a wimp back then I tried it. And was lawn darted to the other side.

My first LD, I was adopted by a group of three women who were very experienced. Gem and I did pretty well and hung in with them throughout. In fact, we ended up finishing 8th. At mile 21 Gem waited while I posted up (too high and with questionable balance at this point in the ride) and took the opportunity to duck down and to the right. I landed on my feet on the ground.

My first 50. I was nervous and the start sucked. We began on a paved driveway covered in loose gravel with a 15% downhill grade that last 100 yards and ended in a 90 degree left turn onto single track in the woods. The ride manager stood at the turn in bright yellow and a flag in her hand to make sure everyone made the turn. Sounds like the perfect recipe for disaster. Gem was in fire breathing dragon mode and I was so scared she was going to take off down the hill and slip and fall. She kept it to a dull roar until she saw the flapping woman at the bottom and vaporized, reappearing about 50 feet away. I went flying off. Thankfully I wasn’t hurt beyond my pride having fallen off 100 yards from the start.

It’s been a wild ride, that’s for sure!

Uncategorized

NaBloPoMo Day 4: A Ride That Impacted Your Life

roamingridersite

January 2010. Gem has settled into the barn and has had a week to adjust to knowing me. I hadn’t ridden her yet choosing to get acquainted on the ground through grooming, hand walking and being present instead.

This day was the day though. I grabbed her from the icy, muddy paddock and brought her into the barn. Her shaggy fur was brushed, curried and brushed again. I rubbed MTG into the bald spots on her butt. I ran my hands over her ribs wondering when the weight would go on so I could no longer feel them so easily.

The ride had already been played out in my mind a dozen times. She’d stand still to be tacked. We would walk into the indoor and I’d mount while Gem waited patiently. She’d walk off when asked and carry me around the arena. We would trot. We would canter. We would work towards learning to jump.

Ha. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!

The reality hit hard and hit fast. When I went to put the bridle on, she reared and flew backwards down the barn aisle. I had to corner her in her stall to bridle her for months.

She wouldn’t lead and instead I had to carry a dressage whip to keep her from digging in and planting her feet.

Mounting was an exercise in acrobatics as she swung around, dashed forward and jaunted back.

Once mounted she stood still. I thought this was a big win, but Gem would prove me wrong yet again. Nothing I did made that mare move. Clucking, kissing, squeezing, digging in my heels, pony club kicking, using the whip. She stood there, ears back to me and told me where I stood with her. Then, once I was in near tears and ready to get off, she bolted violently forward and galloped around the arena throwing in a small buck here and there.

Nothing about that day went right. I left dejected. I thought about selling her. I cried. What had I bought? What was I going to do?

This ride to begin all other rides made me buck up. I reached out to a local trainer and began lessons. I learned was being a rider and not a passenger was all about. This ride may have killed all my day dreams of that magical heart horse that did everything perfect just because they loved me, but it also built the foundation of hard work and earning it.

Gem never gives me anything just because. I need to earn it every ride, every stride, every time. This first ride set the stage for all the blood, sweat and tears that has come since then. It was a ride I could have walked away from, sold her on and bought a new horse. Instead I dug in and showed Gem I wasn’t going anywhere and that I could be more stubborn than her. It was the best thing that could have happened to us.

Uncategorized

NaBloPoMo Day 2

roamingridersite

Having never participated in this before, I’m not sure if I want to just skip the days when I have other content or have two posts in one day. For now I’m going to try the two in one day thing so that I don’t miss any of the prompts. We will see how the month fleshes out.

When was the last time you rode and what did you do?

This is a nice double post because my answer is short and sweet: I went cross country schooling last Friday and fought with my mare the entire time as she apparently had other ideas for the day.

It’s been nearly a week without riding but that’s life. I have been really good at riding twice a week recently, but this last week got away from me. Saturday I gave her off after the nearly 3 hour schooling Friday. Sunday it poured all day. Monday I had a migraine to beat all migraines and went to bed as soon as I got home from work. Tuesday was Halloween. Yesterday I got home after dark from work and have yet to figure out the lighting issue at home. Honestly if we are moving to a place with a lit arena in a month I have no motivation to solve this temporary issue. If the farm falls through then I’ll come up with something.

So that is that. Bring on the next prompt!

Farm life

Another Offer. Another Heart Break?

roamingridersite

As soon as Farm #1 died, we got busy looking again. Our agent had made a lot of mistakes that could have been extremely expensive for us and while I felt bad the deal fell through for her, I knew I wanted a different agent who was more land savvy.

Not knowing anyone, I took to FB and asked on a few different horse sites for recommendations. This resulted in three names. The first woman sent me ads well out of my price range in areas far out of my radius from work. The second was a contact through a friend and she was super nice and knowledgeable, but didn’t have anything she knew that was listed. She did have a farm not on the market but willing to sell which ended up being the prison house.

The third guy was the jack pot. He had a listing that apparently nobody else knew about or at least never showed us. It checked all my boxes on paper: at least 30 acres, within 20 minutes of my work, schools I wouldn’t mind putting Wyatt in, and with at least a 3 bed/2bath house on it. With the needs checked off, we moved to the wants. It had a barn, fencing, stocked pond and an arena with lights. This thing was looking good!

Last Tuesday we went and looked at the property after work. The house was off limits due to a power outing from a bad storm over the weekend. This worked in our favor though as it forced a second look and made us refrain from an emotional offer.

We liked what we saw. The grounds were needing a bit of TLC as it had been left to nature for a while, but the bones were are there and functional. We scheduled a showing of the house for last Saturday.

The house didn’t disappoint. The original building is from the 1800s and has been added on to twice. Dusty wasn’t as enthused about it due to some wonky floors and a bit of a maze feel, but I loved the character of it. These new quickly built box houses with no nooks or crannies aren’t my thing. I love a house with character and this one had it in spades.

We left the property and looked at three other places with more land than this 30 acre plot, but none of them would have worked for us for various reasons. That night we stayed up late talking about it and sent in our offer the next morning.

After a bit of go between we had an accepted offer that we were satisfied with! Now on the the hard part: waiting out the inspection and appraisal. I’m hoping since the property has fencing, a 16 stall barn (no clue what I’m going to do with all those stalls), an arena, a pond and a bigger house that it will appraise better than Farm #1 did which lacked all of that.

After we made our offer I was texting with a couple local horse friends and told them about the place. Apparently the Farm was a huge local show venue 15 years or so ago and both knew it intimately. The history alone is so cool!

We will see how this goes. We have a tentative early December closing, but after the last appraisal debacle I’m not holding my breath yet.

Uncategorized

Clover Ledge Blog Hop: NaBloPoMo Day 1

roamingridersite

Clover Ledge Farm is hosting this challenge for the month of November and since I’ve had so little to write about lately I figured I’d jump on in. And because it is the day after Halloween, you get a picture of Wyatt!

When and why I started riding.

Wow. Starting off with a bang here. For me this question is easiest to be broken into two separate riding “lives”: my younger years and my return as an adult.

I’m not sure if riding was a conscious decision or not. My aunt and uncle owned a horse farm two hours south of where I lived and my mom would take me there as a little girl. Pictures of a blonde haired, blue eyed miniature version of myself are floating around somewhere.

I loved everything about the farm. The animals, the dirt, the room to explore. My aunt began by giving me pony rides until I began begging to go faster. Faster. Faster. At that point my uncle threw me up in his big western saddle in front of him and we raced around the pasture on his saintly TWH mare.

It was only a matter of time until they added a pony to their herd for me which was later upgraded to my own horse. I adored my time spent there, begged my mom to let me spend more weeks with them and cried when I left. We rode from sun up to sun down, swam in the river and conquered mountain trails. It was a dream of a childhood.

Then the usual happened. I grew up into a teenager and became interested in more local endeavors. High school and then college came and went. I got married. I started medical school. Those were the horseless years.

In my third year of medical school something changed. I was doing a month long stint at the VA hospital and an attending was talking about her new horse. One thing led to another and I found myself invited to ride with her. That was beginning of the end.

The moment my leg swung up I felt like I was back home. I missed the feeling of horseflesh under my seat. The smell of horse sweat in my nostrils. The sense of freedom being on a horse gave me. Like I could fly. Like anything was possible.

The reason I started riding is because it was in my bones to do so. I can come up with no better reason. I never had competition goals. I never dreamed of running my own boarding or training barn. I just knew I felt at home in a barn, on a horse.

The reason I keep riding is the challenge to grow as a person, as a steward of these wonderful animals and as a rider. Even the bad rides make me yearn for me. For a redo. The good rides leave me riding a high for days. It’s an addiction. Its in my blood.