WW: Best Mare

Back to Work

Between getting Emmy's fitness ramped back up now that I have enough daylight for quick trail rides after work, I'm also putting time into Cinna - if she's going to be marketable, she needs to ride like the semi-trained horse that she is 🤣

There are nice moments in between the... Llama moments lol. 

She is....rotund and unfit at the moment, so the rides are not long, just making sure we can w/t/c appropriately with a minimum of bolting. She's been out twice this week and hopefully will also get ridden this weekend. Hard to have three in regular work with a job and a commute! 

Riding in the dark with a friend last night. 

Tack choices are hard - I gave away the dressage saddle I used to ride her in, because I had mostly switched to riding her in my flex tree endurance saddle, but I wanted to go back to dressage. Currently she's sporting the WOW I have on loan from a friend (originally for Emmy) and it doesn't seem to be an egregiously awful fit, although she is an actual BARREL so sometimes it just sort of wants to... Roll off to one side, lol. She had been going in a nathe before, but I'm currently trying her in an eggbutt titanium Lorenzini I picked up at the tack swap last fall. She has moments of "OMG NO THNK U" and then moments where she's fine, so I'll keep plugging away at it. 

My goal was conformation photos and instead DH makes her look like a whole ass pony 🤣 and she's not! She is a perfectly normal height and takes up the leg nicely lol. 

We'll see how things go this year!

Double Trouble

J/k it's not trouble, but I took my first lesson in the double last weekend!

Last night's ride 

Around a year ago, while I waited for Emmy to ship to me, a friend sent me a link to some super clearances bridles from Artemis Equine, including some double bridles. She knew I had a horse coming who had been ridden in one before, so thought I might be interested in picking one up. Despite thinking I would probably never need it, my little squirrel hoarder brain couldn't pass up a $50 bridle. So I bought it. And it sat in my tack room. 

After our lesson, taking a picture of the port on the Weymouth to use as a reference for shopping for something smaller. Ordered a new one from Fager that I hope she likes! 

Sometime last summer, I was cleaning out the tack shed, stumbled across it, and put it together for shits and giggles. I had a bridoon and a Weymouth that I picked up cheap from #notRolex at some point, so I set it all up and fitted it as best I could to Emmy, using Internet tutorials and my patient friends who know more than me 🤣 and then it sat. Once or twice I pulled it out and trail rode her in it, mostly trying to get myself used to all the reins. About a week before the show I was thinking about it, so I did a light schooling ride in it, and she felt SO MUCH BETTER in the contact than she had been in the snaffle, which I mentioned to TrainerB at the show. Obviously showing 2nd, I didn't take it with me, but she told me to bring it out sometime. So last weekend I did (along with two other bridles, because I wasn't sure she was serious lol). 

Random non cropped screenshot

TrainerB commented on how nice the bridle was (incidentally between when I bought it and now, she got sponsored by Artemis and now basically all the horses in the barn have their bridles, haha), and that my fitting job wasn't half bad! She adjusted the curb chain, told me the Weymouth was a quarter inch too wide (but fine for the moment), and we had a lesson!

Emmy was great - it was not my imagination, she is in fact much better in the contact in the double than a regular snaffle, despite me rotating through my fairly extensive collection of dressage legal snaffles trying to find something she liked. Honestly the decade she spent being ridden pretty exclusively in leverage bits before I got her probably just means she's always going to be more comfortable in them, I just need to adapt to what makes her happy. I did learn a more effective way to hold the reins, because figuring things out on my own didn't work, which is why I pay for regular, good instruction 🤣 

The goal remains to snag my 2nd level bronze scores as quickly as possible with Emmy, move her to 3rd (since she has a change and thinks counter canter is incredibly stupid lolol), and then hang out at 2nd with Ruby so I get more confirmed in not just riding it, but training it. I am tentatively aiming at shows in April, May, June, and August - assuming finances allow and the stars align! 

Speaking of stars aligning - I am down 20 lbs since Christmas and these brand new, unstretched Eq Lusso boots ZIPPED UP last night over leggings. Getting real close to being able to wear them over breeches! And my old pair is having the zipper replaced with something both wider and heavier duty 🥳

I'm using a combo of mobile blogger (for text) and the blogger app (for photos), so apologies for any weird formatting, I'm doing the best I can!

Second Level Shenanigans

Long time no post! I would apologize for that but it's mostly because Blogger sucks and that's not something in my control soooooooo. 

Anyway, lots going on since my last post in *checks notes* December. Oops! Soooooo much has happened since then, including Emmy and I making our 2nd level debut at a schooling show last weekend! It was a delightfully low key weekend, and I was lucky enough to be able to spend time with ladies from both of my "barn families" - TrainerB and TrainerK were both there showing (and everyone from both barns did great!). 

The plan (as it is, you know what horses do to plans lol) is to really focus on Emmy this year and see if we can snag 2nd level bronze scores and then.... *Shocked gasp* maybe move on to 3rd? Emmy has changes and half pass and a working pirouette so really feeling like the sky is the limit right now - she is teaching me so damn much. Ruby and I will keep chipping away at 2nd at home, especially since now I have a reference point of how it *should* feel lol. Trigger continues to be fat and sassy in retirement. And Cinna... Sigh. Realistically I need to put some solid work into Cinna this spring and put her on the market. There is not enough of me to go around for 3 horses in full (or even partial) work right now. So if you know anyone who would enjoy a quirky but fun dramatic Spanish mare that could be had very reasonably considering the current horse market........ 

Anyway - about to kick off another 3 day weekend with a lesson Tomorrow (with friends, yay!), a Mastering Rider Mindfulness seminar on Sunday, and then maybe a trail ride on Monday if the weather is cooperative? Poor DH is on the equine equivalent of stall rest following his third spinal surgery in the last 15 years....sigh. But, he did get another massive promotion in December so I continue to fall behind Mr. Big Shot in terms of career advancement 🤣 I think that should cover the highlights from the last 8 weeks!