Horse Show Hangover

Man I didn't even show and I still have the worst horse show hangover this week 🥱 the weather is also being particularly uncooperative for riding (the skies opened up while I was finishing chores last night and it poured off and on all evening), so enjoy some photos of a sleepy Ruby this morning! I wish I could get the video to embed, she was wobbling back and forth in her sleep, it was precious 🥺)

Mad I disturbed her beauty rest 🤣

At least the rain has brought the temps down a little!

Show Ring Dreamin'

This weekend I spectated at a recognized show about an hour east of me - new trainer was there with several students and training horses, and I thought it would be a good low-key way to get to know everybody, and see how they functioned as a team at a show, since my goals include getting back into the show ring! It was so much fun!

This guy was basically a giant puppy dog and THE ACTUAL CUTEST I loved him omg. 

A gorgeous GRP showing 4th. 

My snuggly new friend who is a Friesian/QH cross showing 4th+. His freestyle was magical 🤩

We did lots of cuddling

A supremely gorgeous warmblood mare showing 2nd. When she napped, she napped HARD.

Sleeping so hard. 

Waking up from her nap to hug her mom ❤️❤️❤️

The handsome Friesian cross prepping for his photoshoot.

Behind the scenes shot from a session with Bethany P Photography - I cannot wait to see the final results, Bethany is so insanely talented and her desire to get shots that really captured the personality of the horse was just unspeakably cool! 

I was a little nervous heading into the weekend because dressage barns (in general, not this specific barn) can occasionally have a rep for being sort of clique-ish, but sort of like my first two lessons, the reality ended up being so much better than my expectations. From literally the moment I dropped by the aisle to say hi Saturday morning, these ladies immediately welcomed me into their group with open arms, eagerly quizzing me about my horses, making plans for trail riding together, swapping stories about successes and failures in the show ring, digging into their coolers to toss me seltzers, and best of all, getting super hyped up about seeing me at the barn and adding me to their show crew. It was two really long days (including a 5 am wake up call yesterday so I could catch their 7:30 rides lol) but I can't remember the last time I've had more fun! 

Even when I was showing a ton in the past, it was mostly solo and always off my trailer, and when I boarded Ruby (and before her, Topaz) it was at a barn where I was either the only dressage rider or one of just a few while the majority of the barn focused on a different type of showing. Spending more time training and showing with a bunch of people all interested in the same thing as me seems like it will be a whole different ball game, and I'm super excited! I don't think I'll ever be in the tax bracket necessary to keep a horse in training there (lol), but I'm glad that she has other clients like me (horses at home, hauling in for lessons, etc.). Super stoked for my next lesson this weekend! 

Heat Wave

Well I made it four straight weeks posting every day and now I'm completely out of content 🤣 We were under a heat advisory alllll this week and it was GROSS 🤢 Monday night we actually had a cool front blow through around the time I got home, and I had a brief hope that I could sneak in a ride before my GMO meeting, but as I walked outside to tack up Ruby, a car pulled into my driveway...sigh. DH set up an appointment for someone to look at our old boat (because my house is starting to look like a boat lot!) and of course he wasn't home yet so I had to answer questions about the boat for 45 minutes, which then made me almost late for my GMO meeting.... 🤬 Bah. 

I did get this nice plaque at the meeting to add to my wall! Haha. I've now won for two separate articles, a photograph, and now the website!

🤦‍♀️

A sampling of our temps this week

I also spent the better part of the week doing battle with a juvenile raccoon who decided my feed room was his own personal domain. 

Trash panda. 

Why are their little hands so cute? 

You know it's stupid hot when at quarter after nine the heat index is still 95 🥵

Thanks Aimee 🤣

Little bastard

Finally caught him last night, so hopefully now we stop having issues. 

This weekend there is a recognized show at the NEC, and my new instructor's barn has several horses and riders showing, so I'm probably going to spend some time up there this weekend watching tests :)

Another Hot Weekend

I'm really struggling to remember what happened last Friday, but based on the photos in my camera roll it appears it was hot AF and I did not ride, lol. Saturday we had to spend the better part of the day picking up shavings. Our bulk supplier was unexpectedly out when we went to get some last month, and sourcing another bulk provider that didn't have any that didn't have walnut (bad) or pieces of nails and garbage (also bad) has been exhausting. We ended up having to drive out to Versailles  (locals pronounce it ver-sales, which makes me twitch), which is very solidly Amish country! We passed some really cool stores I desperately wanted to stop at haha. The shavings we picked up were actually pretty nice, all things considered, and way cheaper than our usual place. Although of course the 3 hours round trip drive and additional diesel means overall the cost probably comes out in the wash, lol. 

My reward for unloading 4 yards of shavings by hand 🤤

Is this real life? It is. 

Sunday we had plans to take the boat out in the afternoon, so I made sure I was up early to get both horses ridden. Ruby was her usual rockstar self. We have gradually worked up to wearing the equibands through most of our dressage schools, although I'm mindful of how much trot/canter work she does wearing them. 

Perfect bay ears. 

Too lazy to take her fly boots off lol. 

Cinna is still only wearing them for half rides, because she's getting ridden less than Ruby. I'm trying to be better about making sure I write notes about my rides in the equisense, because it really does help me identify trends and adjust accordingly. Adding photos from each ride helps too, because then I can remember exactly what tack they were in (which is actually how I identified that cinna hated my schleese, I finally realized all the "bad" rides were in it and the "good" rides were in my other saddle lol). It's nice to have easy ways to help my scatterbrained self keep track of things! 

Mixing it up on the bridle front. It was an unsuccessful experiment, back to the eponia/nathe next ride. 

Dead people corner. Forever and ever. Sigh. 

I was spectacularly productive and wrapped up with the horses by 9:30, so they got settled in front of fans before it got hot, and then we got the boat all sorted out for an afternoon on the water. 

Cici wants to be a boat dog! We didn't take her Sunday, but I'm sure we will in the future, she has a cute lil life jacket she can wear. 

Got a lot of reading done and a little suntan haha. 

Although didn't get to squeeze in a lesson, it was still a really productive weekend! And thank god I got rides in Sunday, because we've been under a heat advisory all week and spoiler alert, the horses have mostly been off work 🥵🥵

WW: Mark Twain Lake

Oh good, Blogger is back to inserting photos backwards 🙄

We were delayed by someone using the rural highway to move their cows 🤣

Playing Hooky

Last week, DH wanted to find a day we could take off work and take the boat out. We ended up picking Thursday, and then on Wednesday he called me in a panic because he had an important work meeting mid-morning Thursday. I told him we could still go in the afternoon (which made him happy), and that gave me time to ride in the morning (which made me happy). 

Close up of the hyacinth bean flowers (purple) and the cardinal vine (red) that is growing so intertwined that you can't tell where one ends and the other begins.

Ruby was up first! 

We had an EXCELLENT ride! I didn't pull out the cones but I did touch on 10m circles and maybe because I felt less pressure make them exactly at the cones, we definitely had a few good attempts! We also had some of the best, softest, most adjustable RIGHT lead canter I think she's ever given me! 

I was thrilled with her!

Cinna was back to being absolutely positive the corner closest to the cemetery was haunted and she COULD.NOT.GO.THERE. Sigh. One step forward, two steps back. I didn't let it devolve into fighting just focused on riding the horse I had in each area of the ring, and we did have some good work on the not-terrifying end, so sometimes you just gotta take the small wins I guess 🤷‍♀️

One ear on me, one on the scary corner. 

I finished riding for the day before it got ungodly hot, and both horses enjoyed getting hosed down and parked back in front of their fans for the rest of the day!