Let's take a moment to appreciate the Pros of our current ponies, whether you own them or just ride them in lessons. 

This is a great topic. I've been struggling with horse ownership lately. Don't get me wrong. I love my ponies and they bring me joy, but it was a hard winter financially and, for Dancer, physically. Sometimes I worry that I made a big mistake by getting a third horse. Some days, I get to thinking about how profitable my business would be (very) if I didn't have any horses of my own. I have a full client list, I do a ton of riding, and horses to compete come out of the woodwork without me having to foot the bill. At the end of the day, I don't have much time to enjoy my own horses, especially now that I'm giving lessons on weekends too. This week I actually worked all three of my horses... and that was the first time in memory that it's  happened. Yikes!

But on to the point of the post. Here's what I appreciate about my three beasts.

Ozzy
He's a goofball. He always makes me smile and laugh. Ozzy is Mr. Personality, and really charms everyone who meets him. He's my partner and  my heart horse, and despite the fact that I ride many 'nicer' horses, he's still my hands-down favorite. He's not a brave horse by nature, but he's always willing to try his heart out for me, which I find so endearing. He is largely responsible for making me the rider I am today, and for teaching me patience and how to think outside the box. And of course, there are the countless happy memories. Miles spent on trail. Crazy adventures. Quiet moments. When I look back on my life, I am sure that I will always remember this horse above all the others.



JR
This one's easy. JR is worth his weight in gold. He's my steady eddy. I can put anyone on him and know he'll take care of them. I can use him in lessons, or loan him out to friends to ride. He trail rides, he jumps, he holds the hands of the nervous, both human and equine. He taught Mike to post and lunge and pick hooves. He's always up for whatever shenanigans I have in mind, whether it's doing a hunter pace or standing on his back. Despite the fact that he's the horse I could off load easily and without guilt (remember, he's the free lease!) I can't imagine not having him in my herd. The fact that I don't pay his medical bills is an added bonus.


Dancer
He's pretty.

That's it.

No, no. I'm kidding.

He's honest. No matter what I throw at him, he tackles it with great work ethic and a willingness to try that is heart warming. For example, I round penned him for the first time two days ago. It took about three minutes off the lunge line for him to figure out how to read my hand signals. Good boy. He's also a lovely jumper, and seems to genuinely enjoy his job. I also appreciate that he can take time out of work and pick up right where he left off, minus some fitness. I also appreciate his potential as a sale horse, even though I sometimes feel like we'll be stuck with him forever.

I have been running around like a chicken with its head cut off for the last several weeks. Between the slew of new clients, the search for a barn to train out of (I have a long waiting list of people who want to send me horses, but I have nowhere to stick them; yikes!), and the fact that I've actually been having something of a social life, I've been too busy to breathe, let alone blog. Luckily (??) my car finally had to go to the shop*, so I'm stuck at home with almost nothing (ha) to do.  If I was a little more motivated, I'd walk the dogs to the barn and trail ride my horse, but I don't think even I have the energy to walk six miles across the mountain, ride for a couple hours, and walk six miles back (to be fair, I could probably bum a ride home from my BO). Instead, I'll blog!

*On a related note, I'd be curious to know the statistics on our current car situation. We have three vehicles from three very different years (1991, 2000, 2010) and the mufflers on all three of them came loose in one week. What are the chances of that happening?

Their first trail ride.

After most of the winter off due to his injury, Arrow has been making amazing progress under saddle. We've been on an every-other-week schedule for quite some time. Kristin is diligent about doing her 'homework' between sessions, and I've mostly been guiding them along as their bond grows by leaps and bounds (not literal for a change).

Last month, after Kristin and her husband, Tom, brought home their new trailer, she was ready to hit the trails for real. To be fair, I suspect that Arrow has a good bit of trail riding history in his past. However, his last owners  had kids who would 'race ya' all the way home. You can imagine the bad habits Arrow developed as a result.

The first time we took Arrow off the property, his first trip off the property in over a year, I rode him first. To my utter delight, he was a very good sport about it. We walked and jogged down the trail while Mike and Kristin followed on foot. After a few water crossings and 'scary' sights, I let Kristin hop on board. They had a relatively successful first outing, but Arrow did start to jig terribly as soon as they turned for home. We worked through it and ended on a good note, but we had our work cut out for us.

By that point, Kristin was eyeballing the Amwell Valley Spring Hunter Pace. The start is on the same street that I keep my horses on, and I told her I'd ride with her on one of my guys if she came to pick me up. We scheduled another trail lesson at a different park and everything went perfectly. Kristin even took Arrow out solo one time before the main event.

I warned Kristin that the hunter pace might overwhelm Arrow, and we planned to meet early to give ourselves plenty of time before the start, so Arrow would have the chance to settle. After all, he hadn't laid eyes on another horse in a year and a half, and the starting area would be packed with other equines.

The morning of the hunter pace, Mike and I woke up at 4am to a strange sound outside. Bump-bump, bump-bump, bump-bump. What was that? Bump-bump, bump-bump, bump-bump. Closer, further, closer, further. Bump-bump, bump-bump, bump-bump. How strange...

"I know what it is," Mike declared at last. "The horses are running around."
Satisfied with that answer, I settled back on my pillow.

Bump-bump, bump-bump, bump-bump. 

No. Something wasn't right. That was the sound of one horse running around. Where was the other horse? There's a mountain lion in the woods behind our house. What if something had happened to the other horse?

Mike went out on the deck in his boxers to investigate.
"Well, shit. The stallion's out."
"What do you mean 'out'?"
"He's loose on the lawn under the deck."

Of course this was the night that our landlord wasn't home. In a mad scramble, I threw on pants and fished for my contacts. I'm blind as a bat without them. Then I hurried downstairs, grabbing the only thing I could think of... one of the dogs' leashes... and flipping the headlamp to green light instead of white. Outside, I looked for the loose horse, but didn't see any sign of him.

"Tookie! Tookie where are you??" I called uncertainly into the dark.
With a clip clopping of hooves and a look that said, "I need an adult! I need an adult!" Tookie appeared in front of me.

Talking softly to the five year old AngloArab stud, I slipped the leash around his neck. The horses don't wear halters in turn out. I now essentially had a stallion on a string.

My next dilemma was how to get the alarmed horse back in his field. After all, it's not my barn and I don't know where anything is. Plus, at 4am, I'm not exactly sharp as a tack mentally. The only way I knew was through the people door in the side of the barn. So here I was, in the middle of the night, leading a young stallion with a dog leash... through the people door, around the generator, under this over hang, over that obstacle, and around this tight turn. And the horse totally did it! No questions asked. What a good boy.

Oreo, the older paint gelding, gazed at me with a look of utter disgust. "Gee thanks. I spent a week trying to push that stupid thing through the fence, and you brought him back. Wonderful."

A quick look at the fences revealed nothing amiss. I noted that it was the 13th, and that maybe this was our bad luck for the day. Mike and I collapsed back into bed for a touch more sleep.

Before long, we were up and at 'em. Mike filled the tank in my car while I caught JR, groomed him, and got his socks nice and sparkly white. We had told Kristin to meet us at the barn at 9am, and she was right on time.

Ozzy was mortified that I would take JR somewhere and not bring him too. He whinnied pitifully when the trailer pulled up and I loaded JR and left my faithful standardbred behind. I had opted to bring the Fat!Pony because I didn't want Ozzy to do something silly and cause a scene.

Ha.

Hahaha.

Ha.

-_-

We made the five minute haul to the country club with Mike following in my car. We parked next to Jen's niece and her friend, who would go on to win the Junior division. And who should pull in behind us other than Marissa and her boyfriend, Ethan, who I had heard good things about, but hadn't actually met. It had been way too long since I'd seen Marissa and Tucker and I was thrilled to see them. I also got to meet Ethan's Paso Fino, Gitano, who I'd seen on Facebook a few times.

After introductions, I half-jokingly told Mike and Tom to keep an eye on the horses while Kristin and I went to sign in.

On our way back from sign in, I heard an ominous squeal from the other side of the trailer, and I just knew it was my horse and that he was about to be a problem.

From what I understand, the two of them were playing nice when Arrow suddenly turned around and kicked JR. JR flew back, broke his halter, and left the scene. At first, he stuck around camp doing the obnoxious pony thing... standing just out of reach and stuffing his face with grass.

I shouted, "He'll come right to grain. Somebody grab me a bucket of grain! Nobody chase him."

Instead, everyone started stalking and creeping and trying to corner the pony. *sigh* That got JR all amped up and he started to play keep away. A few minutes later, he went between a dense tree line and a parked rig. Someone got in front of the truck. Someone else got in behind the trailer. For a moment, it looked like we had him.

And then my p**y jumped the hitch and got away. Seriously. And it was one of the tall ones with a crank handle topping it off. Talk about a skinny vertical! I never want to hear complaints from him about trotting cross rails again...

By this point, JR got his proverbial middle finger out and took off. I was still in denial, thinking, "He won't leave the herd," as he veered out of the starting line and opened it up across the neighboring polo field. With his tail straight in the air, a la rude gesture, he made a beeline for the trail head in the woods on the other side. I've never seen him move so fast in the two years I've had him. This is the pony you essentially have to beat into any gait faster than a walk. I was in shock.

Had this been an endurance ride, I'm pretty sure there would have been a search party, people driving off to block any major road crossings, and at least two people on horseback taking off in pursuit. As Mike, Marissa, and I followed my Bad!Pony into the wilderness, ride management was busy telling my client, "We need that girl's contact information. If that pony goes on the golf course, she's going to get sued." Ummm... how about not holding an equine event at a country club if it's such a big problem? Ugh! Thankfully, JR chose the polo field, not the green to go gallivanting across, so I appear to be in the clear. All the same, I was a little miffed by the attitude.

As we trekked down a steep hill and ventured further into the woods, tracking my pony's hoofprints through the earth like some kind of Boy Scout troop, I started to worry. What if he ran into a road and got hit by a car? What if he blew a tendon? What if I just plain couldn't find him? Eventually, the search got a bit ridiculous and I told Marissa to head back to camp. After all, she hadn't even had a chance to tell Ethan where she went before we disappeared.

After what felt like an eternity, we finally spotted JR in the woods alongside the pipeline. It turns out he hit the Neshanic River and turned around, right before the road. Thank god! He must have run out of steam, and now the panic of being alone in the strange forest was setting in. Mike whistled to him, and JR came galloping out of the woods into his open arms, like some scene out of a deranged Disney movie. He thrust his head into Mike's chest as if to say, "I'm ready to be domesticated now."

From there, I hopped on my sweaty pony and rode him back to the parking area bridle-less. When I returned, people looked at me like I had three heads. Whispers of, "Isn't that the horse that just broke loose?" I swear he's my dead quiet lesson pony who I teach toddlers on safely. He's really not crazy.

But that wasn't it for our adventure. On the way home, I spotted a large black and white mass laying motionless in the underbrush by the river. With a sinking feeling, I asked Mike, "Is that a cow?"
"It looks like it."
"Can you please go see if it's dead? If it's bogged down and needs rescuing, I'll never forgive myself if we don't help."

It turns out there were multiple dead cows in the woods. It was the start of a mystery/investigation that is worthy of an entry all its own. Seriously, JR, you couldn't pick ANY other trail in the woods to go on your escapade??

Story of my life.

Eventually, JR, Mike, Tom, and I made our way back to the trailer. JR was pretty sweaty, but seemed no worse for the wear. I gave him half an hour to catch his breath and unwind before bridling him and heading to the starting line.

JR and Tucker look like old friends.

After all that, we wound up having a perfectly lovely ride. The trails were still a bit of a sloppy mess and we had to go slowly, but it was great just to be out. Marissa and Ethan wound up riding with us for the duration, and it was great to catch up with them. Arrow was on his very best behavior, and didn't so much as balk at any of the hairy water crossings. Kristin even got to canter him on several occasions, her first time outside the ring!

After watching the helmet cam footage, I realized that I never, ever shut up. Not for a minute. Nobody's even pretending to listen, and here I am still blathering away about who knows what. I apologize to everyone who knows me in real life. I'm sorry I don't come with a mute button. Thank you all for humoring me. I'm not likely to change.

The hunter pace was on the short side, at only eight miles, but I think that was the perfect distance for all of us. At the end of it, JR still had plenty of energy left for a nice hand gallop. Apparently he's way fitter than we give him credit for, and he's been playing us with his fat old man act. Good to know. I will say that he was a little sore the next day, but he recovered enough to go for a quiet six mile trail ride with Tor a few days later.

I'm still without a computer right now, so I can't edit helmet cam footage, but I did painstakingly grab some screen caps from the videos, and even uploaded a few of the shorter clips for you to enjoy.

Gitano, Tucker the Wunderkind, JR, and Arrow. Details to follow :)

As you may have gathered, I did my first ride of the season last weekend. It was a spur of the moment thing, and I couldn't be happier.

I came home one day, about a week before the ride, to find a million Facebook notifications in my inbox. I had been tagged by everybody and their mom in a thread on one of the ECTRA pages. Intrigued, I logged on to see what the deal was. Turns out a local-to-me rider (with 24 mutual friends) was looking for someone to ride one of her horses at Fair Hill for the Chesapeake. A bunch of people had thought of me. The post called for a lightweight rider and claimed the horse needed an experienced hand.

Coming to the finish.

I chimed in, "What do you mean by 'not a beginner horse'?" I'm all for a horse that's strong, fit, and forward, but I'm past the point in my life where I want to ride something that's trying to kill me every step of the ride... at least, not for free.
I was told he's the type to test his rider, but not obnoxious or dangerous. I did some stalking, and the horse in question seemed to be a nice animal.

Shortly after that, I was told that another rider had been found. "But I may need to adopt a rider for the season."
"Well, I'm highly adoptable. Let me know if your other rider falls through. I make my own schedule so I'm pretty flexible."

Three days before the ride, I got an email. The other rider (a junior 'provided' by ride management) wasn't going to work out after all. Did I still want to ride?
I glanced at Mike with an impish grin, "Hey, baby, how do you feel about going to Maryland?"
"When?"
"This weekend..."
"What are we going to do with the dogs?"
"Take them with us?"
"Where will we sleep?"
"I don't know..."

But he agreed anyway. What a good man.

The Thursday before the ride, I drove out to meet Chris and her horse, JJ. Her farm was only half an hour from our apartment, but it's a part of New Jersey that I never visit for anything. The drive over was an education for me. "Wait, how does THAT pop out THERE?"

Pro photo by Hoof Prints Images.

I found the barn with no problem and went inside to introduce myself to Chris. As it turns out, she and I have crossed paths in the past, but had never been formally introduced. She had JJ in already. The smallish chestnut had a wide blaze and kind, intelligent eyes. He also had impeccable ground manners. I liked him immediately.

It turns out that JJ, registered name Jolly Jake PW, was bred by Pam at Boxwood Farm. He's out of a mare I know, named Bygosh Bygolly. With horses like Czort, Juan de Shawn, and Kontiki in his pedigree, he's just my kind of Arabian. As my life would have it, Chris also knows our landlord, and remembers Tookie, the stallion in our backyard, as a little black colt. Small world, as usual.

Chris and her husband usually ride together. He rides his horse, a big gray named Juan. She rides her youngster, Norisk, an Asgaard Arabian she won as a baby at the Old Dominion raffle, and that leaves JJ, her seasoned 14 year old gelding. The rider who usually takes JJ apparently suffered a bad fall from a different horse. She fractured her hip, but didn't know the extent of her injury until it gave out on her several days later. She's currently at the rehab center and won't be back to riding any time soon. Since Chris's husband tends to ride his own ride, without waiting up for the 'baby', Chris likes to have someone along on JJ to keep her company.

After some get-to-know-you banter, Chris tacked JJ up for me and took me out to the ring to try him out. She wanted me to know what he was about, and I'm sure she wanted to make sure I could half way ride before having her horse carry me through a CDR two states over.

Our first ride was lovely. JJ was a little on the lazy side, but I found him to be balanced, responsive, and quiet. When I cantered him, a huge smile broke out on my face. He's got that floating, all-day-long canter that I so adore in a well-bred endurance horse.

Chris seemed impressed with my riding and announced, "You're hired!"

It was a short ride, but it's all we needed.

"So what makes him an advanced horse?" I asked, my curiosity piqued.
"O, I just say that so nobody screws him up. I don't want beginners riding him."
Brilliant!

From there, all I had to do was shift my entire weekend schedule. I'm in the midst of the spring rush. My clients are coming out of hibernation and I'm in the process of evaluating a slew of new potential clients (good god I am behind on updating, but business is good!) After Chris told me she'd found another rider, I packed my weekend full of lessons and evaluations. Thankfully, my clients are all very understanding, and I was able to cram two days worth of lessons into six hours. At the last minute, I had a 'Dom client reunion' at April's barn when one of my new clients came out to audit her lesson with Shadow. The busiest day of the year!

Chris was really understanding about everything, and told me not to rush down there. The ride started on Sunday morning, and she and her husband, Larry, were able to get the horses unloaded and vetted without me. Mike and I had enough time to grab a bite to eat and even shower before driving down to Maryland.

In the end, we decided to bring his big truck along for the ride. After all, we pumped a ton of money into getting it running; we might as well use it! The bench seats seemed like they would provide the best option for sleeping arrangements as well.

We made it to Fair Hill in just over two hours (the drive seems to get shorter every time) and arrived just as darkness fell. I checked in with Chris, said hi to JJ in his stall, and took the dogs for a short walk. Then, Mike and I went to bed.

The smiles were not a fluke.

I have to say that sleeping in the truck without the dogs probably would have been ok, but with the two mutts in there, it was basically a living hell. Julio tried his best to stay out of my way, and wasn't terrible to sleep with, but Herbie was her usual bed hogging self and kicked me in the shins just as I managed to drift off. We did finally find a solution that worked... about an hour before my alarm went off. I will say that it was still better than the time we slept in my hatchback by that pond in North Carolina (we'll be telling that story for the rest of our lives) but it's not something I'm eager to repeat. We agreed that we're going to find a cap for the truck bed and try that for future rides. At least we weren't cold!

Despite the lack of comfort over night, I got up feeling well-rested. Mike rustled up some coffee and bananas for me while I grazed JJ and listened in on the ride briefing. The day started off chilly, but it was sunny and promised to be warm... just in time for us to finish the ride!

Before I knew it, we were getting tacked up and ready to go. JJ stood like a gentleman while I rigged up his saddle and hackamore. I did mess up the ties on his rump rug, forgetting to pass them over my stirrup leathers, so the whole thing kept shifting back and forth across his haunches as we rode. Thankfully, he's not a horse to get bothered by that sort of thing, so it was a non-issue.

We mounted up and rode toward the starting line at about 8:20 (our scheduled ride time). It turns out ride management had pushed everything back by half an hour, but hadn't made a big announcement. Thankfully, they took the fall for their mistake and let us go out at 8:25 instead of making us mill around camp until nearly 9am.

The ride itself was lovely. I couldn't have asked for a better day. Because of the hard, wet winter and some of the lasting storm damage from Sandy, the Chesapeake didn't run on its usual trails. There was a lot of riding on gravel roads, and the loops essentially ran 'backwards' to what I'm used to. Still, the landscape was lovely, and there were grassy lanes alongside 90% of the gravel.

The three of us took turns leading, though I think Larry and Juan were in front for most of the trip. Chris and Larry went back and forth about strategy, in that bantering way that married couples do. I refused to get involved and just enjoyed my ride. JJ was a complete gentleman, and we got some awesome canters in. I was pleased that he was forward and eager to move out all day. He just powered right down the trail. I held him back for Nordi's sake, but I really think the horse can just cruise all day. I certainly hope so... he's done 100's!

Unsuccessfully channeling Funder!

Chris asked me for input on her training, but I told her she's doing a fantastic job on her own, as far as I can tell. Nordi still has to develop a better canter, but he has a lot of try, and he's very brave. This was only his second competition (the first was only a week prior) and he was bold, bold, bold. He even led the way through one of Fair Hill's infamous tunnels.

Before I knew it, we were heading back to the finish line. Just like that, the ride was behind us. All three horses finished strong. JJ pulsed in at 40bpm with a respiration of 12. I had my best trot circles to date (the horse knew what he was doing!) and everybody was sound and ready to go, go, go. Nordi had a touch of girthiness during his hands on and JJ nicked his coronet band on the rocks by the covered bridge. I don't think anyone would have noticed if it wasn't for his white socks.

We got the horses put away and had just enough time to grab some lunch before the awards ceremony started. Since it was a CDR (conditioning distance ride), they just gave completions and score cards, without ranking anyone in order of finish. JJ finished strong with a 97 point something percent. Juan had an almost perfect score, and Nordi lost a couple points on his girth to end up with a 95%.

A couple short hours later, the trailer was packed, the stalls were cleaned, and the horses were loaded. I thanked Chris profusely, said goodbye to her three adorable dogs (a 2yo BC, a 9 week old BC, and a 17 year old Sheltie) and wished them save travels. Mike and I were home with daylight to spare, the dogs were tuckered out, and my barn owner took care of my horses.

It was the perfect start to my ride season. Bonus points for the fact that I didn't even feel it the next day and was still able to go to ballet. Here's hoping to more miles on JJ in the future!

Photo ©Hoof Print Images

Spring means adoption season is picking up at the clinic. I managed to get photos of some of the available animals in between rain showers. Unfortunately, I didn't have Dyandra's help with a few of them. She and I have puppy photos down to an art, and the image quality definitely suffered from her absence.

This is Arizona. Animal Control brought her in. She was too young to be spayed so we decided to hang onto her. She has already been placed. I have missed having a kitten around. I probably won't be saying that in a few weeks.

Rosie the Rescue

Mike hasn't been feeling well. The dogs have been nursing him.

This is Gunner with Jen's teenage niece riding him.

(down by the schoolyard)