First!

Okay, so this is my first blog entry and I think it is the part where I am supposed to explain just why I am blogging. I've apparently become typical, as in, whenever someone who loves to ride decides to buy land and build a barn and live on the very same property as their horses, they stop riding. Yeah, that's me. There are always a million projects that need to be done and I have a hard time justifying the time to ride, even though I have a barnful of horses who need the rides. I've tried making riding a priority, making lists and goals and promises, but nothing is working. My newest thought is that maybe if I blog about my rides, anyone can read and see just how many or how few rides I am actually putting in. (Because of course my riding log is really, really interesting to the multitudes on the internet!)

I call it short stirrup although I have long since aged out of that division... we focus on ponies here and since I am pushing 5'8", short stirrups is exactly what I have when I am training. We do have some token horses as well, including one gigantic three-year-old -- you'll meet him later.

Here is an introduction to a few of the cast of characters.

Rosalynn is a twenty-year-old Swedish Warmblood x Thoroughbred mare. She is an extremely valuable part of my lesson program because she is perfect. Before I had her, she was winning at second level in dressage when she was sidelined to have a foal and never really got back into it. I bought her as a sixteen-year-old, intending to breed her, but when I found that she was still riding sound and a wonderful teacher I used her first in my lesson program. We did breed her for a 2007 filly but when I tried to bring her back into work early this year after weaning the filly, she was off. I'd had this mare for nearly five years and she'd never been off! We've had a hard time diagnosing the problem -- films were inconclusive -- so I figure it's soft tissue and is just going to take some time. I refuse to put her on stall rest because she'd be so angry she'd probably tear the barn down, so she still goes on turnout with the mare herd. She is getting sounder, very slowly. Her appearances in this blog are going to be related to her recovery.


Isabelle is a ten-year-old Oldenburg jumper mare. Don't you just want to kiss her great big warmblood head and ears? Yes, we are still "training" at ten. She has the double-whammy disability of some unknown but obviously suspect handling in her past coupled with her sire's resistant-to-training temperament. I actually had the pleasure of starting this mare as a four-year-old and she was so talented that I wished I could buy her but she was out of my price range. I was able to purchase her several years later and she certainly wasn't the horse I'd known before. The things that were the same -- an extreme sensitivity to touch and an ability to dance and cartwheel and buck in ways I've never seen another horse manage. The things that were different -- an extreme dislike for contact with her mouth and an occasional total refusal to work. We've had her teeth floated and her body chiropracted so the issues that remain are emotional. I persevere with her because when she is good, she is very, very good (I can cross my arms and ride her with my seat alone on her good days) although (and I'm sure you saw this coming) when she is bad, she is horrid. She loses her brain on occasion and when her brain takes leave of her body, her only speed is GO. Ah, I love her so. :)

Cory is a three-year-old Welsh Mountain Pony stallion. He is the Jack Johnson of ponies. Why gallop with Owen when you can walk slowly to the gate at turn-in? And why walk at all if you can get away with just standing there and looking hot? I see photos of his Welsh friends and relations moving out huge at the trot like you would not believe and I think that I'd have to set off bombs to get him that motivated. He'd much rather do the Cory-jog. Since I believe firmly that stallions should have jobs other than having sex, Cory is being put under saddle this year. So far he has posed no challenge other than keeping him moving!