Pony shenanigans, caught on video

/ Ashley Wingert / 2 Comments

I’ve been meaning to take some video for a while, and today I finally managed to get all the stars to align for this:

She put on her full fireworks display of romping, kicking, and in general having way too much fun.

Part of why I wanted a video of her moving at liberty is for work-related purposes…her shenanigans put any boot to the test.  I call her the crash-test dummy of the hoof boot world: if it can be broken, she will find a way.  The above is Exhibit A as to why.  She is flat-out hard on hoof wear.

(I guess that says something that she has only busted one Renegade in almost five years.)

I’ve also been curious to analyze her movement, frame-by-frame.  She has short, fairly upright little pasterns, but I’m amazed at how much flexion actually happens when she’s moving at speed.  And I’m very pleased to see she’s got a very decent landing, for her.  She’s naturally high-heeled (pony feet!) and a heel-first landing is something we struggled with for years.

She used to go through the toes of boots embarrassingly fast, but ever since I took over her trimming, I have made a conscious effort to work on her heels and keep them in check.  As a result, she’s wearing her boots much more evenly now, and she’s landing pretty evenly.

I know I’m biased, but I just love watching her move.  Today, I was having a hard time remembering she’s 19 and has fused hocks, because she was moving really well.  The warmer the weather gets, the happier (and less crunchy) she is.

Top Ten List: Equine Books

/ Ashley Wingert / 4 Comments

Inspired by the idea of the ‘Top Ten’ in endurance, I’m presenting my Top Ten list of favorite equine-related, non-fiction books.

I’m a crazy bookworm who is an absolute research geek when it comes to topics I like.  (Pretty much anything relating to four hooves, a tail, and a whinnied greeting.  But my research shelves also contain tons of writing stuff, and a ton of cookbooks.  To further the eclecticism: An assortment containing everything from theatre to home decor books.  The only unifying theme among all of these is that they’re topics that are interesting to me.  Show me a math/chemistry/physics book and my eyes glaze over.)
My Top Ten Favorites
The Complete Guide to Endurance Riding and Competition, by Donna Synder-Smith
Though it was written quite a few years ago, much of the information is still relevant today and it’s my favorite go-to endurance guide.  I’ve been skimming through it as a refresher course with the thought in mind that one day, I am going to have to bring a new horse along in endurance.  I have several endurance-related books in my library, and I end up going through all of them, but this one ends up being the one most frequently grabbed.
Centered Riding, by Sally Swift
A timeless classic that should be on every bookshelf.  Even if you’re not interested in any kind of arena-based competition, this is a valuable resource as a book because it gets down to the functional basics of riding that are important no matter what your discipline.  I am constantly learning from it, even with close to 20 years spent in the saddle.
Conformation & Performance, by Nancy S. Loving, DVM, photos by Bob Langrish
This was actually one of my textbook (!) for an Equine Science class I took in college.  Best class ever…well, toss-up between that and a Theatre Movement class that involved stage combat…but the equine one turned out to be a little more relevant.  Warning: Once you read this book, you will never be able to look at a horse without finding fault in their conformation, and you start wondering if you’ll ever find a perfectly-conformed horse.  Hint: You won’t…it’s a matter of learning what conformation flaws you can live with and which are unacceptable.  The photography is a major part of the book, and makes it really easy to identify each conformation aspect that is being discussed.
Getting in TTouch, by Linda Tellington-Jones
This book fascinates me.  I absolutely love analyzing a horse based on their physical characteristics.  I’ve applied the principles in the book to enough horses that I’ve know to find it’s eerily accurate.  I love horse “psychology” for lack of a better word, knowing ‘how’ and ‘why’ a horse is going to react to something the way they do, and these kinds of books have gone a long way towards altering my perception of working with the horse and turning them into your partner, versus an automatronic sheep.
Arabian Legends, by Marian K. Carpenter
I am a lightweight, a complete novice, when it comes to bloodline research.  I know just enough to know what I like and what to avoid.  But bloodline history is fascinating to me.  Especially with Arabians.  They’re such an old breed, with so much history tied in to them, that just going through this book is an interesting read.

How Good Riders Get Good, Denny Emerson
A new addition to my bookshelf.  I started following Denny’s blog a few weeks ago, and very quickly ended up purchasing the book.  I’m only a little ways into it at this point, but already loving what I’m reading.  Not so much a technical manual as it is a mental strategy guide and examination of you as a person and how that translate into you as a rider.  He doesn’t pull punches, but lays out the facts, sometimes in ways that’ll make you cringe to yourself when you realize you’re guilty of doing exactly that thing.  But he also manages to do it in such a way that it never feels like a personal insult or attack, but rather a bald statement of fact and motivation to look for how to fix/change it.  Looking forward to finishing this book…and then re-reading it.
Ten Feet Tall, Still, by Julie Suhr
I must get Julie’s new book.  But until then…I love this book.  I love her writing style…she’s a fantastic storyteller and I love that she lets so much of who she is come through in this book.  It’s a memoir, not a technical manual…and yet, there is so much to learn from it.  It’s entertaining, and her description of riding Tevis has brought tears to my eyes on a number of occasions.
The Level Best for Your Horse, by Dale, Ron & Bob Myler
I am a certified bit geek.  I love collecting them…love figuring out whether they work or not…and this book really opened my eyes.  I learned things about bits that I either didn’t know, or had a pretty drastic misconception of.  I will never stop learning or trying to further my education, and this book is one of those really good examples of why.  I also just love reading about all of the different options for bits and how they all work.  I could go broke just buying bits.
Correct Movement in Horses, by Gabrieke Rachen-Schoneich and Klaus Schoneich
I was introduced to this book at the Dr. Kerry Ridgway seminar I attended a couple of months ago.  Many of Dr. Ridgway’s principles of training and balancing of horses comes from this book.  This is a really good, even further in-depth explanation of the problem of “the crooked horse” and training solutions for how to go about solving it.  I’ve not had a chance to put the theories into practice yet, but I’m enjoying adding this knowledge to my repertoire.
Horse Owner’s Guide to Natural Hoof Care, by Jaime Jackson
My go-to resource when my original trimming mentor Kirt Lander is unavailable.  I like his approach to trimming and it’s written in such a way that I don’t feel too overwhelmed.  Most of my trimming is done by instinct or feel…which is why I can’t teach other people how to trim…but of late, I’ve been wanting to expand my technical knowledge of barefoot a lot more.  (I think I want to get my hands on the Pete Ramey DVDs at some point.)
It was actually kind of hard to narrow it down to even ten…I’ve got another half dozen or so that I really like.  Decisions, decisions.  And I think I might continue this Top Ten list trend, just moving around to various topics.

5 Years!

/ Ashley Wingert / 12 Comments

Happy blogiversary to me…it’s five years now that I’ve been able to keep this going, and considering we’re only a quarter of the way through the year and I’m already at my second-highest number of blog posts/year, I might have finally figured out this whole “regular posting” thing.

Ironically, it’s during a time when I’m not riding competing, and should in theory have nothing to write about.

I originally started the blog for my own purposes of remembering stuff that happened and keeping myself on track.  I’ve always loved to write, have been fascinated by others’ ride stories, and figured this would be a good place for me to store my own thoughts and memories of rides I’ve done.

What I didn’t anticipate was how this blogging thing would spiral off in unexpected directions.  It’s been invaluable in forming a network and introducing me to great new friends.  It’s given me an outlet for writing.  And writing was an integral part of how I got my job with Renegade.

So I owe a lot to the blog…and THANK YOU, my readers/subscribers/followers, whether you’re new here, or been following me since the beginning.  I value your input, your contributions, and your friendship.  I still haven’t met most of you in person…but thanks to blogging, I feel like I know you and can call you my friends.

This sort of snuck up on me…I just happened to be looking at older posts when I realized, “Hey, the anniversary of my first post is coming up.”

And I’m actually writing this post a couple days ahead of time and scheduling it to post on the day, since I figured I would probably forget on the actual day.

But next year, I’ll plan better and come up with some kind of blog-party or something.

Before and After

/ Ashley Wingert / 6 Comments

It was Pony Bath Day today.

The Before:

I just noticed the tongue sticking out!

I took the worst pictures today.  Seriously, my adorable pony looks like a hippo.  But I wasn’t thinking when I took this first picture…should have stepped further back.

Funny thing, you can’t tell how dirty she actually is.  She is practically day-glow white in pictures even when she’s dirty, so no one actually believes me unless they see her in person and see how much dirt she packs into that coat.  Especially after I curry her.
She got a really thorough bath…fingernail scrubbing down to the roots of her mane and tail, rubber bath mitt all over her whole body, especially getting the scurfy stuff off her legs.  Sprayed her mane and tail with this avocado moisturizer spray stuff I really like (EQyss Avocado Mist) and left her in the washrack to finishing drying while I sized and fit Renegades on one of the barn owner’s horses.  
I really enjoy the whole process of boot fitting and sizing…it always interesting to see static fit versus dynamic fit — just because it looks like it fits at a standstill doesn’t always mean it’s the right fit once they start moving.  But that’s worth a whole other blog post.
Back to the pony, who was cooling her heels and getting cooed over by the two young daughters of a friend of the barn owner.  As a final touch, she got Show-Sheened on her mane and tail, fly sprayed, and this was the end result:
Again, my apologies for the hippo-head quality of this shot.  She kept making a bid for the grass the second I would try to step away far enough to get a decent pic.  So it’s her own fault.  And she really needed to be out in the sunshine for the full day-glow effect.
And I did this to my helmet:
Racing stripes!!!
They’re reflective, too.  I haven’t been using the velcro-on Salamander Beak visor of late, because I’m finding that sunglasses + tiny visor on helmet is really enough coverage, and it doesn’t block my upward vision quite as much.  If Mimi was a head-tosser, I’d be more concerned about not having a stiff visor to block potential upward head movement, but she tried that trick once, years ago, when I wore a Troxel helmet with a longer, stiffer visor.  She smacked her poll into the visor edge, and she hasn’t tossed her head upwards since.
Tomorrow’s supposed to be another triple digit day…I think I might hibernate next to the a/c vent.  Next weekend is supposed to be a reprieve down to the 80s (How you know you live in AZ: When the words “down into the 80s” is considered a reprieve) so the barn owner made some noises about hauling out to ride for one last chance at nice weather.
The one perk of hotter weather: Lees people out on the trail.