The Repurposed Horse

Snappy hind end - that rail actually stayed up Pic - C.P.  This past weekend was the annual Haunted Hunter Pace! It was the first "show" I took Leo to , and this year it became the first "show" for Spring and I! And it was so much fun! Pic courtesy of Leah! Barn BFF S and I teamed up again this year as Wonder Woman and Superman. Spring was Wondermare, and S's horse Wally was Super Wally! We didn't put a ton of effort into our costumes - although S definitely put more into hers than I did mine, and they looked great!  She was such a good sport Months ago, before the date of the hunter pace was officially announced, my mom and I had planned to spend this past weekend hanging out in Southern Indiana. Because I am nothing if not determined, I decided to make both the weekend with my mom and the hunter pace happen - and although it was exhausting, it was definitely worth it.  My mom and I spent Friday and Saturday hiking, shopping, and drinking w...

Aloha, blogosphere. I am still here. Life has been quite busy, and posting has been...not happening. But I have been riding, and Spring has been progressing, and Leo is...well, let's just say that retirement seems to suit him. Ahem. Spring is really looking good these days. She's building topline, and her booty is muscling up nicely. She looks much healthier, and although it's getting fuzzy, her coat maintains a nice level of shine.   Month One Neck - skinny. Shoulder - disproportionately huge. Back - almost flat. Ribcage - uncomfortably prominent. Booty - would look best in mom jeans. Spring was a collection of promising angles, all bone and dull coat and awkwardness.  Month two For a while there, it seemed Spring was reverting to her former racehorse self. (note that she had just been hosed off when this picture was taken) Neck - still skinny. Shoulder - more filled out, less disproportionate. Back - somewhat more muscular. Ribcage - less alarming. ...

When I started riding at CEC, I had roughly zero experience with riding horses that anyone in their right mind would consider "hot." I was a pretty timid rider as a child, and anything that moved too quickly was too much for me. As a teenager/young adult, my confidence grew, but I still rarely rode anything overly forward - no longer by choice but simply due to a lack of availability, as more forward and more difficult horses often don't make it into lesson programs at barns where most clients are owners and the focus is hunters. Hello, mud. It's been a while. My third lesson at CEC was my first ride on Izzy, the mare I would eventually go on to half lease, and it was not pleasant. That mare was many people's definition of hot, and she was coming off an extended period of rest following an injury. I had literally no idea what I was doing, and spent most of the lesson fighting tears and trying to get her to calm down, please, and just walk (In a circle. Witho...

The focus of last week's lesson was "scary" jumps - ones that Trainer designed to throw our horses off.  There was a picket fence, an oxer with demonic horse-eating flowers camped under it, a liverpool, a corner made from those plastic blocks that you can stack to make jumps, and (most terrifyingly of all) a vertical covered in a green cooler that apparently emanated portents of certain doom. Spring had the entire week off leading up to this lesson, which took place last Friday, because of her stupid shoe. I was not expecting it to go well. But she looked fabulous in her new (Lund) clothes She warmed up okay but was tense, and instead of cantering like a sane horse she wanted to gallop full force like the racehorse she used to be.  Thankfully we were outside, and I was able to incorporate many circles to help remind her that her legs can actually move at a pace slower than warp speed. Then the jumping began. Trainer did not allow us to approach anything before a...