miscellanea

Revealing Horsey Memories

/ Ashley Wingert / Leave a comment

So I snagged this from one of my friends off MySpace, and it seemed more appropriate to repost it here as well. Snag it if you feel like it!

Your Age: 23
How old were you when you start​ed ridin​g?​: 7
How many years​ have you been ridin​g?​: That would make it about 16 years next summer.

ABOUT​ YOUR HORSE​:​
Show/Registered Name:​ Skip Me Gold
Barn Name:​ Mimi
Age: 15
Gende​r:​ Mare
Color​:​ Grey, witha few tiny little flea-bitten marks here and there, and cute little mottling freckles around her eyes and muzzle.
Breed​: POA
Heigh​t:​ 14hh (on her tiptoes, on a 6 week barefoot trim)
Years​ Owned​:​ 12

Have you ever falle​n off?: Yeah. More times than I care to count or remember.
Have you ever been bit by a horse​?: Yep. The pony has quick teeth reflexes, and was seriously cranky about being woken up in the early mornings.
​Have you ever been kicke​d by a horse​?​: Actually, I’ve been remarkably lucky in that regard, and the worst I’ve gotten has been accidental hoof contact on the thigh when I fell off and rolled.
Have you ever been serio​usly injur​ed by a horse​?​: A concussion or a sprained shoulder was the worst of it.
What is the highe​st you have jumpe​d on a horse​?: 3’6″.

PICK ONE.
Engli​sh or Weste​rn: Did both, prefer English. Still like my English-style endurance saddle best.
Show or Pleas​ure:​ Did both. Switched to Endurance.
Saddl​e or Bareb​ack:​ Did both. Bareback is fine for casual pasture riding, but the pony is way to hard to ride bareback with her lack of withers. Saddle all the way, thanks.
Tall Boots​ or Paddo​ck Boots​:​ Neither. Ariat Terrains or hiking sneakers.
Breec​hes or Chaps​:​ Half chaps and obnoxiously colored tights I’m an ENDURANCE RIDER, baby!!!
Ridin​g Indoo​rs or outsi​de:​ Outdoors, all the way!!! (I’m in Arizona, riding gets cancelled because of weather maybe .05% of the time.)
Horse​s or Ponie​s:​ Pony Power!!! I heart my pony.
Favor​ite disci​pline​:​ Endurance

HAVE YOU DONE.​.​.​
Trail​s:​ All the time. Endurance?!?!
Showi​ng:​ Used to.
Weste​rn:​ Yes.
Engli​sh:​ Yes.
Halte​r:​ Yes, ick.
Barre​ls:​ Yes, my favorite thing to do behind endurance is all gymkhana games.
Racin​g:​ Only unless racing across open fields or wide double track dirt lanes counts.

HAVE YOU EVER.​.​.​
Gone swimm​ing on horse​back: Sadly, no. I would like to someday.
Ridde​n bareb​ack:​ All the time.
Broke​ in a horse​ all by yours​elf:​ No, I’m not quite brave enough for that. I’ll take them with 30 days, thanks.
Gotte​n a horse​ award​ of any type:​ Hehehe…yeah…

HAVE YOU EVER FALLE​N OFF BECAU​SE.​..
​The horse​ spook​ed:​ Yeah. Spooks happen when you ride outside a ring. Heck, they happen inside a ring, too…but they happen a lot more outside the safety of the rails.
Had a horse​ trip befor​e:​ Yeah, cantering bareback across a pasture and just kind of slid off.
The horse​ refus​ed a jump: Why, I believe this is how I’ve come off most of the time.
The horse​ fell on top of you: Fortunately, no.
The horse​ bucke​d:​ Yeah. Thank you, Beamer. *glares*
The horse​ reare​d:​ Yep, first time I ever came off a horse.
The horse​ bolte​d:​ Yeah, this kind of goes hand-in-hand with the spook thing.

ACCID​ENTS…
​Have you ever broke​n a bone from ridin​g:​ Nope. Have the majority of my sprains from riding, though.
Been stood​ on: A number of times.
Ever had stitc​hes:​ Not from horses.
Had a horse​ land on you from a rear:​ Nope.
Been tramp​led:​ No, the pony was smart enough to jump over me.
Been badly​ bruis​ed:​ Oh yeah.
Torn/​crush​ed any tendo​ns/​muscl​es:​ Just sprains. And that’s been a shoulder, both ankles, both wrists, a hand, and both knees. (Is it possible to sprain a knee??? If it is, I’ve done it…)
Been dragg​ed whils​t leadi​ng a horse​:​ Yep.
Been dragg​ed when you fell:​ Only because I refuse to let go of the reins, and it was only a couple feet. I skidded on pavement once, though.
Lost confi​dence​:​ From time to time, yes.

The best-laid plans

/ Ashley Wingert / 1 Comment

As most people are starting to get geared up for the 2009 AERC season already, I’m gazing a the thin layer of dust that has accumulated on my saddle. Sadly, it’s not trail dust. It’s dust from sitting on a saddle rack in my room for the past 6 weeks. That’s right, I haven’t taken my saddle out since the beginning of October. The few times I’ve ridden Mimi have been in the arena and pasture, bareback.

Beamer’s face is still healing from his encounter with some sharp, pointy objects, something that happened about 3 weeks ago. The location of the wounds (left side of his face, about in line with a halter noseband, and the right edge of his jaw) make bandaging impossible, and the lingering heat we are dealing with means the flies are still very active. It also means it’s very tough to put a halter on him. We’ve discovered he works beautifully off a neck rope. Whoduh thunk it???

Mimi’s still off. I can’t pin anything concrete down, but my suspicions are that it is actually a mechanical issue versus true pain. It appears that she is ever-so-slightly off in her left hind leg, but it is a consistent thing that shows up now matter what gait, which had lead me to embrace to following conclusion:

When I last had her joint injections done in September, the vet had a very difficult time find a spot to stick the needle in her right hock. I believe, as does the vet, that this meant that her hock was very close to fusing. I’m guessing a bit if time, and the stress and strain of Man Against Horser, might have completed the process. By fusing, her hock now has less mobility, but it also means there is not the irriation of forming bone spurs rubbing together, and she is more comfortable on that leg.

However, her left hock is not yet fused. That hock was better off than the right one, and still easy to inject. What I believe is happening is that one hock (right) has more flexibility than the other, leading to a slight imbalance of movement. It’s not true pain or lameness, but rather a natural imbalance that is stemming from having one leg that can flex more than the other.

All that to say: I think 2009 will be my year off endurance. While she’s not technically lame, I feel that even doing 25 miles in an unbalanced state like that could cause some other type of damage in that her front legs would be unevenly loaded, and it will cause me to ride unbalanced. School is also getting to a rather critical stage for me…I’d ideally like to be done by the end of 2009, and be able to move and be out on my own by the first part of 2010.

So Mimi’s going to get some time off. We’ll still be casually trail riding of course, to keep her mind sane and in shape. Exercise will help that other hock fuse all the faster, and who knows…maybe we’ll be back at it, doing LDs in whichever locale I end up moving to (right now, San Diego, CA tops the list of choices). I just feel like I need some time away to clear my head. I have so much stress going on in everyday life right now that the decision to not compete for now has lightened some of the weight on my shoulders.

A worthwhile mention

/ Ashley Wingert / Leave a comment

For a while now, I’ve been following the blog of Tamara of In the Night Farm (the link is on the sidebar). She is raising and training Barb horses, as well as an Arabian gelding, for endurance. Her insights into working with these unique horses have been very educational for me. She is an entertaining, gifted writer whose posts are always a pleasure to read. And she’s currently running a contest on her blog, which can be found here: http://inthenightfarm.blogspot.com/2008/10/best-of-barb-wire-contest.html. So check it out!

Too hot to trot

/ Ashley Wingert / Leave a comment

There’s something about temps of 110*+ combined with 40% humidity that really puts the kibosh on the idea of riding. The ponies weren’t complaining, either. Mimi was jsut as happy to escape today with a 15 minute scratch-and-massage session, plus a bath, complete with a Cowboy Magicked tangle-free mane and tail. She looked like a shiny white show pony by the time I was done. That’ll last maybe an hour.

Dad and Beamer were the unfortunate victims of a bee attack at the barn today…very weird. The bees only left when I came running out of the barn, frantically spraying fly spray everywhere. Apparently they don’t let RepelX fly spray. Aggressive suckers, too, from what Dad said…going right for the face/eyes. Scary.

So I didn’t get to try out my new Dirty Girl Gaiters today…they came in the mail last week. I got the black ones with the purple flames on them. I’ll get pics the next time I put them on. They go well with all of Mimi’s purple/black tack, and they look good when I held them up next to my dove grey tights. What I really need to look super spiffy-coordinated is a pair of purple tights now. Pay tuition first, and if I have anything left over from that, I might hit up Evelyn’s Just For Horse’n Around tights, since I’ve heard many good things about them…the price is right, too!

More heat…

/ Ashley Wingert / Leave a comment

Is summer over yet? We’ve been lazy of late, and only rode today instead of both days of the weekend. I went ballroom dancing Friday night (I feel all graceful now! And yay, my foot held up!) and got home really late, and it was supposed to be miserable, weather-wise, on Saturday (it was) so we only went out today.

I don’t think the ponies were thrilled with the idea. Mimi decided that tripping and threatening to fall off the edge of the trail twice (not drop-offs, but still…downward slope…) was a good way to express her displeasure. Hmmm…not. And her back Renegades are completely smooth and tread-bare, so she was slipping quite a bit on downhills.

But I just need to hold out until the first weekend of October, which is Man vs Horse weekend. I already talked to Gina and she and Kirt and going to custom-fit Mimi’s boots at the ride. I’ve got 5 size 0 boots for her fronts, and the 2 back 00s, so I should have enough to get me through, even through 4 of the 5 front ones are loosing chunks from the toes.