Spring Cleaning Tack Sale

/ Ashley Wingert / Leave a comment
Well, I did some spring cleaning of some of my gear and have some stuff for sale – a Supracor Endurance pad and several English girths, as well as my Stubben A/P English saddle…my former show and jumping saddle that no longer even remotely fits Mimi.
Supracor Endurance Long Saddle Pad. Black Coolgrip honeycomb material. 3/4″ thick. 28″L x 38″W. Bottom flap 16″W. Cantle width 23″W. Pad has been used less than a dozen times, and is still in great condition. $145.
All girths are used, in good to excellent condition.
46″ Wintec Elastic English girth. Barely used. Does not have D-rings for breastcollar attachment. $30.
44″ Toklat Woolback English girth. Good condition. $25.
38″ Toklat Wookback English girth. Good condition. $25.
38″ Professional’s Choice Neoprene English girth. Very good condition. Does not have D-rings for breastcollar attachment. $25.
And the saddle…
Stubben A/P English saddle. 17 1/2″ seat, Medium-wide (32cm) tree. This is a great equitation saddle with enough security for jumping. Close contact knee rolls and flatter seat. Comes with stirrup leathers and irons, 44″ leather girth, Toklat Medallion saddle pad, and matching English bridle and reins. It’s been stored inside my house for the last seven years, and has always been regularly cleaned and maintained. It’s still in great condition, with just a few darker spots on the outer flaps from tall boot and stirrup lather rubs. Brand new, this saddle sells for $1600. Asking $995.
Buyer pays shipping. PayPal preferred. Contact Ashley at echorider@msn.com or 480-695-3656. Located in Arizona.

Spring Fever

/ Ashley Wingert / Leave a comment

Spring is definitely here. People and ponies alike are restless and antsy, and can’t get out on trail fast enough. Both ponies were full of beans yesterday. Beamer looks like he got into a fight with a chainsaw — and lost — from his over-the-fence face games with the other geldings. Mimi is going around with a permanent “pony glint” in her eyes, just waiting to see what kind of mischief she can come up with, be it chomping Beamer on the tail, sneezing all over me, or flipping her feed pan around.

They were both pretty full of themselves over the weekend, and as such, we rode fairly slowly both days. It wouldn’t have taken much encouragement for a working trot to turn into a hand gallop, and Beamer had his competitive “race brain” trying to take over. Hand-walking for a bit dissuaded him. And Mimi has embrace her springtime “3 weeks in, 1 week out” heat cycle. Someone remind me of this next time I fall in love with a feisty, opinionated, sometimes flat-out bitchy mare.

And the horsepeople are obviously feeling it, too. The parking lot was crammed with trailers yesterday, and from the sounds of it, a riotous good time was being had by all. Why do people feel the need to consume beer at 8:00 in the morning, just before you’re about to climb on a horse? And the various and sundry horse-related email lists I’m on are obviously feeling the need to get out and gallop for 10 miles or so. Sniping and ruffled feathers abound.

Hidden Treasures

/ Ashley Wingert / Leave a comment
It’s amazing what can be found on half a roll of film that’s been living in a camera for two years. Several weeks ago, we had a family breakfast at my aunt’s house that consisted of Dad’s side of the family – his parents, sister, and brother and his family. As part of the gathering, we decided to do family portraits. Dad has the nicest camera of all of us, a beautiful Canon I-don’t-know-what-model-but-it’s-one-pro’s-use that I have designs on. A beautiful film camera. Yeah, they still exist (side note: and I still own one — my Canon Rebel is old-school film.)

All of this to say: there was still half a roll of film containing photos of who-knows-what when we went to take pictures. So half the roll was family stuff. The other half?
The last batch of pictures Dad took while crewing for me at Las Cienegas 2006. There were only a handful of the last of the pics — four (I think?) rolls over two days — he was a busy photographer! Unfortunately, I lost all of my copies I had on the computer in last fall’s computer crash, but I still have the original CDs, so all I have to do is upload them again. There’s enough pictures there for me to justify uploading a whole flickr or photobucket album, so look for that in the near future. As well as a recounting from the ride, since it was very fun — our first back-to-back 25s, and our first LD Top Ten — both days!
In the meantime, enjoy pictures of a very pissy pony. This was right before going out on the second loop out of camp on the second day. The wind was blowing at gale-force strength, it was cold, and she was not happy standing around.
Definitely pissy. Note the rump rug and multiple rider layers. 5, I believe, the top layer being a Goretex shell and pants.


Slightly more cheerful. I think the wind stopped blowing for a microsecond.


Riding partner for the weekend, Cathy Gemperline and horse Diamond, who Mimi tolerated, since we were moving at at a pace fast enough to deter her from pulling too many ugly mare faces.

Happy Ponies

/ Ashley Wingert / Leave a comment

We took the ponies out yesterday and they were great. Their first ride since McDowell last weekend, and I was so pleased with how they looked. They were both very happy and perky, and had tons of energy. It was very gratifying to see both of them go charging out of their stalls and jump into the trailer. :)

It was a shorter ride, only about 7-8 miles, a nice moderate mix of walking and trotting. They keep making “improvements” to the San Tan trails, and I’ve mixed feelings about this. The endurance rider in me is thrilled — smoother trails mean more trotting; the inner trail rider in me is screaming about the lack of challenge and technical trails. However, I think I’ve come to a happy compromise: we spend most of our time at the San Tans training for endurance. It’s easier to have that, and trailer out father to more challenging trails when we want to trail ride, versus trying to endurance train on really tough, technical trails all the time.

The weather was absolutely perfect yesterday, too. High 60s, moderately breezy, a few scattered clouds, and just this light, fresh feeling in the air that spring is definitely on its way.

I really don’t understand Mimi and her lack of drinking at rides. Yesterday, for a short little ride like that, she drained her entire 5-gallon bucket, between drinking before we went out and drinking when we got back. And she does this on a regular basis for training rides. And yet, she goes all night Friday night at McDowell without drinking. ???

I’m going to try Karen Chaton’s suggestion of two buckets of water, one plain and one salty. I offered her a small bucket of salted water yesterday after the ride and she was quite intrigued, enough so that she drained most of the bucket. Odd pony.

Ride photos

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The official ride photos from Valley of the Sun. We got these as completion awards. I’m not sure who the photographer was, but she did a lovely job…if anyone knows, please let me know!


Me and Mimi. This is about 3/4 of the way through the first loop. *dutifully ignores the crusty-looking crud on the white pony*


Dad and Beamer, Me and Mimi. 2 miles into the ride.


Dad and Beamer. 3/4 of the way through the first loop. How come *his* white horse is so much cleaner than mine?

Dad and Beamer, about 2 miles into the ride. Awesome action shot!

And finally, a short video from the ride. A warning…it was taken from the back of the eggbeater-trot pony, so it’s a little shaky in parts. Those prone to motion-scikness may need to avert their eyes. This was taken about halfway through the first loop, on part of the trail that was a straight out-and-back section, which meant we got to ride through this gorgeous part of the trail twice.