tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5112029243055548442024-02-07T12:29:55.985-08:00Team RileyTeam Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646135267139653078noreply@blogger.comBlogger41125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511202924305554844.post-1318105728173895092013-06-16T16:31:00.001-07:002013-06-16T16:31:27.519-07:00Deadbeat DadFirst off, seeing as it's Father's Day, I've got to mention what an amazing dad I have, who is most definitely NOT a deadbeat! I'm very lucky to have such an awesome dad who has my best interest in heart and supports me no matter what. He may give me crap sometimes, but I'd have to say I deserve it, especially for all the crap I give him back. I'm so lucky that he loves the horses as much as I do and I've got to admit that I love our long spring road trips to horse shows. Not only is he an amazing dad, but he's also an amazing horse show dad and groom, keeping his cool, cheering me on, and occasionally frantically biking the 15 minutes back to the barn to get my forgotten Flair strip or yellow watch 10 minutes before my ride time (and somehow making it back with time to spare!). This spring he's told me at at least one or two of the shows how much he and my mom enjoy coming and enjoy the horses and I've got to say it always makes me want to cry that I have such awesome parents who love me so much and love the horses as much as I do. So a huge, happy Father's Day to my awesome dad (and the head of Team Riley's transportation), John!<br />
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<i>It may of been about 10 degrees and snowing like crazy, but he was still at Lakeside to help Riley win 3 blue ribbons!</i></div>
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<i>One of my favorite pictures of us- Riley looks sooo thrilled!</i></div>
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So now that I've said that, I've got to switch my focus to the big announcement I mentioned in the last post, the subject of which is Deadbeat Dad. John occasionally brings the boys treats, but when he fails to pick up carrots, peppermints, or Willie Muffins for a couple of weekends in a row, I call him a deadbeat dad for never supporting "the kids". While he's obviously not really their dad (we all know Eye Z Fine and Cliff's Edge have those titles), as of last weekend, he is one step closer since he proposed to me! He of course got my parents' blessing, but also had to get Riles'- which he did with a big bag of peppermints. He brought the peppermints out to the barn and was feeding some to Riley when I walked up and asked him for one to give to Riley. Instead of a peppermint, though, he gave me a ring inside a peppermint wrapper. I was completely caught off guard as I had NO idea he was planning on popping the question any time soon. He's such an amazing boyfriend and "dad" to the boys that I'd of course be stupid to say no- so my only option was to say yes! I'm so lucky to be engaged to my soul mate and am so, so excited, if not a little overwhelmed, for the year ahead before our wedding and after that the rest of our lives.<br />
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<i>John and Riley, two of my favorite boys!</i></div>
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<i>John with Cole, my other favorite boy</i></div>
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<i>Getting ready to have some horse fun without the boys at the KY Derby</i></div>
<br />Team Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646135267139653078noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511202924305554844.post-56354637300907018892013-06-11T12:24:00.003-07:002013-06-11T12:52:59.443-07:00Spring Season Wrap UpWOW, has it been a great spring season! In the past month Cole has made his eventing debut, Riley finished up his qualifications for AECs, and Riley finished his first training level three day. This spring has made me extra grateful to own such wonderful horses.<br />
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As a side note, I have to mention that part of the lack of updates has been thanks to law school. The end of the semester was about as crazy as usual and on top of that was all of the formalities and excitement that comes along with graduating. But I officially have my J.D. (I finally got all my grades back- and I thankfully didn't fail out during my last semester!)! Now I'm just hunkering down and studying for the bar exam at the end of the summer.<br />
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Back in mid-May I was lucky enough to be able to take both boys up to Ohio for Greater Dayton HT. I picked it as Cole's first show because it has a reputation as a great spring/first outing show and I thought it'd be a good warmup to see how Riley would hold up before the three day. We had a fantastic weekend, although I was extra busy with the two horses. The week before the show I had pinched a nerve in my back so I was a little worried about how riding two at an event would go over, but my body came through for me and I was actually in significantly less pain the Monday after the event than I was the Monday before the event.<br />
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Riley had put in a pretty good dressage test, but I did feel like we left points on the table. The judge seemed to think pretty highly of it, though, because we got a 34 and landed in 2nd place after dressage. The show jumping was in a grass arena (odd because when it's on the grass, it's usually not fenced in with a permanent fence) and I don't know if that threw people off or what, but I think I watched at least two riders in front of me have significant problems, with at least one getting eliminated. Thankfully Riley is a show jumping superstar and jumps on the grass all the time, so he finished with a double clear SJ. On XC day he showed me that making time isn't a problem and that he's grown up to be an amazing, bold training level horse. The ditch-to-skinny question rode fantastic, although I'm still certain that the old Riley would've dumped me in the ditch. Riley finished the weekend in second place with a super positive experience under his belt.<br />
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As for Cole, I once again felt that our test was solid, but could've improved a fair amount. He got a 33, which put him in 4th place. The show jumping caused more issues in the beginner novice, resulting in a move up in the placings for Cole when he went double clear. XC was my biggest worry for him because while he's SO honest, he's not particularly bold. He got out on course and barely batted an eye at any of the jumps- if anything he was more concerned about the tiny ones than the bigger ones! At the end of the weekend, he had to go even with Riley and also bring home a big red second place ribbon. I was super proud of how much he grew up over the weekend and how he really stepped up in the XC. He felt like a real event horse!<br />
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Our big, BIG goal this whole spring has been the IEA Training Level Three Day. When they first came out with the training three day years ago, I DESPERATELY wanted to take Riley to one. I had one clean training in 2008, followed by two eliminations and a move back down to novice. I knew Riley could succeed at training, but every time we had a ditch, I either landed in it or picked up three refusals and was eliminated for the day. In 2009 I finally gave up on taking Riley training and started looking for a new horse. I don't regret that decision since it gave Riley time to grow up and gain confidence. Meanwhile, it did the same for me while also bringing Will into my life. But all the same, the training three day was one of the first things that popped back in my head after Riley won his first training in several years at Jumpstart last fall.<br />
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The weekend itself was full of plenty ups and downs. Looking at it in its entirety, though, I think it was a huge success. If I wanted to pick it apart I could, and I could probably end up feeling really crappy about my weekend, especially with Riley, but that just makes it not fun. And as I've told multiple people lately, events cost WAY too much money to not have fun- even if I have to make the fun myself. I'm eternally grateful to Will not only for giving my confidence and maturity in my riding, but because he gave me the most positive outlook on events and riding. I'm naturally a very competitive person and sometimes it can be easy to get caught up in the dressage score, the color of the ribbon, or even the other things along the way, like how the footing was sloppy or the volunteers weren't always the friendliest. But I know that organizers try about as hard to put on a good event as I do to have a good time at said event, so it's just not worth getting too upset about anything. In his life, Will taught me to have a great sense of humor about a terrible dressage score or other things that don't go how I want them to. I've learned along the way to also accept blame where blame is due and to learn from my mistakes. And when Will died, I learned to sincerely and deeply appreciate any event where at the end of the weekend, I get to go home with my horse.<br />
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Side rant over, things unfortunately did not go as planned with Riley. The dressage was ok, but not spectacular. We were the first rider in our division and got to warm up in the pouring rain. I was happy with Riley's overall performance, knowing some of his dressage antics, but I know the test could've been better. After dressage we had a pretty good score for us, something around a 37, but it put us in 8th of 10 starters. XC day had significantly better weather and started off very well. We came in under time for phase A and had enough time to compose ourselves for steeplechase. Riley was a huge rockstar, coming in 30 seconds under- which was amazing if you consider how much I used to struggle to make time at training with him (it was set to go at prelim speed!). He was bold and really seemed to have as much fun as I did. At the C assistance area, we did a quick shoe check and moved onward. Unfortunately due to all the rain and the sloppy footing, Riley came into the 10 minute box without a shoe. We also came into the 10 minute box with a few time penalties from C because I relied on the times posted in the program, not the times posted at the show office. Apparently they mentioned this at the competitor meeting, but I don't think I heard it because I was late. Even more unfortunately, there was no farrier at the 10 minute box to fix Riley's pulled shoe. Thankfully, though, after a little bit of stressing out, we got a farrier over, everything was fixed, and I wasn't penalized.<br />
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<i>Dressage in the pouring rain.</i></div>
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<i>Riley's been wearing his fancy pants lately!</i> </div>
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<i>Steeplechase</i></div>
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Cross country itself was fantastic. Riley's grown up so much and I'm so incredibly proud of him. NOTHING on course felt hard for him. We did have a run-out at the corner, but it was entirely my fault because the jump came up fast after a turn and I didn't slow him down enough to let him see it and know it was coming. He easily cleared it on our second approach, confirming that it was totally my fault. Everything else rode very, very well, including the angled ramps, water complex (drop in, bending line to bank up to jump), trekehner, and coffin.<br />
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As for show jumping, we had a very good round with a terrible detour in the middle. Jumps 1-4 were fantastic. Jump 5A/5B was a one stride in-and-out. I cut the turn a little short to 5, which normally isn't a problem for Riley, but I think in hindsight, I ought to of let him see the jump a little longer. Moreover, jump 5A was a vertical with a solid rail on top and a striped rail going diagonally across the center as a filler. When he jumped 5A, he knocked the top rail HARD with his hind legs. The way the ride went at 5 was very uncharacteristic for Riley and the best way I can explain it is that he didn't understand the question at 5A and thought the diagonal striped pole was the top rail instead of the solid rail that actually was the top rail. When we got to 5B, he felt a bit angry about knocking the rail at 5A as though his mind was still on that having happened and he refused the B oxer. We reapproached and the same ride happened. He jumped 5B on the third attempt, but he still seemed to not understand why he knocked 5A HARD with his back legs every time he jumped it. I have a pretty strong feeling that if he wasn't so tired, he might of been able to power through the in-and-out despite not understanding it, but that his normal extra athleticism and mom-saving powers just weren't there on Sunday morning. Of course after our near-elimination at 5A/5B, he jumped everything else clear and was a total rockstar.<br />
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<i>Sunday morning jog</i></div>
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Despite our issues, Riley finished 6th in the T3D. He apparently would've also won best conditioned had we of not excused ourselves from eligibility for the award. We excused ourselves because Team Riley donated the Willpower Award in honor of Will to go to the best conditioned horse. It would've been great to win it, but I really wanted it to go to someone else to help keep Will's memory alive and hopefully make them feel as awesome as I did when I won best conditioned with Will. I also won a sportsmanship award, which was really awesome. As I ranted earlier, I'm just not into whining about things when- for lack of a better phrase- shit happens. I feel like shit definitely happened to me, but it's just not worth it to me to let it ruin my good time, so it was awesome to get recognized for that. We also got a completion ribbon from the USEA and IEA, reminding me that it really was a HUGE deal for Riley to finish the weekend. I know I say it again and again, but I'm so proud of Riley and the horse he's grown up to be. I'm so lucky to own him, flaws and all, because at the end of the weekend he tries so, so hard and really puts his heart into it. I can only dream that Cole grows up to have as much heart as Riley does or as Will did.<br />
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And thinking about Cole, he was a total superstar at his first ever novice! A mere 2 weeks after completing his first ever horse trial, in what might not of been one of my most brilliant moments, I decided to move Cole up to novice at one of the more difficult XC tracks in area 8. Thankfully, though, Cole didn't know how stupid I might of been and happily stepped up to the challenge. In his dressage he seemed more focused on the sloppy footing, the squirrels, the other horses, and just about any thing other than the rider on his back and the actual test. We deserved the 42 that we received and will hopefully have some focus at the next event. He's enough of a baby that I know he's going to have good days and bad days while he figures out horse showing and it was just unfortunate that dressage was one of those bad days.<br />
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Next was XC, where he was AMAZING. He's very, very honest, but not always a bold or catty jumper, so once again I was worried about making it over all the solid fences. He really seemed to eat it up, though. He got out on course and got in such a great, easy feeling rhythm, that I unfortunately let him pick up some speed fault penalties. I could've trotted more on course, but he has a huge stride and I really wanted him to learn the "forward" lesson since he doesn't always get that. While we were fast, I don't think we were ever unsafe- it's just that it was such a pleasant rhythm that I didn't want to break it or risk making him think that he wasn't doing the right thing.<br />
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On show jump day he took a while in the warmup to feel like he was paying attention. I don't know if it's those nice, thick bones of his, but he really doesn't seem to care if he wonks a rail pretty hard. I had him jumping well enough, though, and it was our turn to go, so we headed over for our turn. I could tell about 10 strides back that I didn't have his focus for the first fence, and I just never got it. As a result, he knocked the crap out of it, throwing it out a good 10 feet and making it look more like a landing rail than a top rail of a fence. That seemed to snap him back to the moment and the task at hand, though, and he was awesome everywhere else on course. Cole ended up in 7th place overall and was also 1st place amateur and 2nd place OTTB, meaning he got a novice AECs qualifying score and $100 for the OTTB award. And more importantly he had a very positive run and successfully finished his first novice.<br />
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<i>Cole was not very fond of wearing his ribbon.</i></div>
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So in something considerably larger than a nutshell, that's been our big spring season. The next show in the calendar is Midsouth PC HT with Cole going novice, so there will definitely have to be an update after that. Also look forward to a huge announcement from Team Riley in the next few days- it's VERY exciting!!! I just thought it deserves it's own post by itself, aside from the Dayton and IEA reports.Team Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646135267139653078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511202924305554844.post-43714432875019256182013-04-29T21:35:00.001-07:002013-04-30T04:59:03.622-07:00What in God's name have I gotten myself into?I guess I'll start it off like this...as some of you know and many of you don't know, I used to play baseball back in the day. A recent blog post on <a href="http://www.horsenation.com/">Horse</a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><a href="http://www.horsenation.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #55554e;"> </span>Nation</a> by <a href="http://www.horsenation.com/2013/04/23/tips-for-eventers-living-in-itty-bitty-apartments-in-the-city-music-appreciation-edition/">Yvette Seger</a>, about the similarities between baseball, finally gave me the excuse of why I may fit in, in this horse world. But it's probably my only excuse, the rest is just being crazy enough to buy into it.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">Short of three years ago I met this girl Maggie, we were as we call it "framed". She knew just about nothing about me, but our mutual friend gave me a rundown about her.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">Rides horses?! Awesome, I'll finally get to ride one, I've lived in Kentucky my whole life and haven't yet, that's like sacrilege.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">She Events...I'll wikipedia that so I at least get what she's talking about...but have mostly no clue.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">Ride Riley...have a blast and want to learn more</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">(can't remember how long later) Riley gets least and I have to learn on Will and the famous pony Ransom.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">And it was all down hill from there, I was hooked, I have to show at least once. In a way it was to show Maggie I was that interested and wasn't all talk, but there was a lot more to it I would find out.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">To bring it back to the baseball thing, ever since I was five I was playing organized sports; football, basketball and baseball (I would have played volleyball too since it was my mom's sport, but it was always during baseball season). Baseball was my sport though, I pitched in high school and even got some offers to play in college. I ended up deciding to go into architecture instead though. What was I thinking?! Actually what no one knew until I got done with my senior season was that if I went any longer I'd probably blow my elbow out, I was in a lot of pain after every game I threw.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">For the longest time I was always occupied and extremely passionate about something that I was involved in. Even though I can't play anymore, I still love the sport (Go STL Cardinals!) and will eventually coach little league some day, I just don't know when. I even drag Maggie to games, lucky for me the first game I took her to there was a bench clearing fight in the middle of the first. Is that comparable to anything in eventing? the closest thing I can think of is jousting.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">When I started riding with Maggie, I instantly felt that passion about something again, and it wasn't from me. The amount of excitement and drive she had for riding really grabbed me. Baseball, like most other sports has a timetable. At a certain age there is no progressing. You can still play in pick-up leagues, organized leagues, but there is a certain point when you can't excel past your peak. It felt amazing to be around someone who was just as passionate as you about something. And in a way it filled a hole, something I was missing.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">But now; mostly joking, I ask myself...what in the world did I get myself into?</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">It has been a countless number of shows (thank God I made it through the first one), three Rolex XC marathons and many of late nights at the barn either setting rails or cleaning tack. The list could go on, but my mind doesn't want to think that hard right now. And I'm still here and I'm going to show. It started with a hand me down pair of half chaps from Maggie. Then a pair of paddock boots. Then, at Rolex 2012 Dawn and Maggie both got me whips and bedazzzled/glittered them, that is when I knew I was in too deep.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">I was actually probably in too deep just months into this, depends on when I started to show up at the barn, treat in hand, and was able to create a horse song out of any song that came on the radio. You all didn't know I could do that did you? Just ask Willard about his apple bottom jeans and wolf boots with the fur, or Riley about Riding Polo. Did you know Riley is a huge fan of Ke$ha? She's his guilty pleasure and even follows her on twitter. Willard loved Pretty Lights and Bassnectar, but we still can't decide Cole's favorite yet. Then I started creating a comic about the boys and their life on the farm, <a href="http://www.horsenation.com/2013/04/18/horsin-round-fast-food/">Horsin' 'Round</a>. The mind works wonders when you sit at the barn all day waiting for some crazy redhead to get done riding or working. I never mind though, there is something soothing about being out there, just you and the ponies in the scenery that makes Kentucky so beautiful. Like Yvette wrote, there are plenty of songs I could sit back and think about while riding or just hanging out at the barn. I need to think of a start box song now to make sure I'm ready to go.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">And now Rolex 2013 roles around...is there a certain time frame from when you start to when you hit the point of no return? I just want to see if I'm average of above average. After just about a year I took Will to a Dressage show, and now I'm on the verge of eventing. I'm making my combined test debut at Sayre School in two weeks! And thanks to some Rolex shopping, I'm ready to go. I now have a not so bedazzled whip, saddle pad, show coat (the tailor better have it ready next Wed.) and I'm in the process of breaking in some tall boots. My feet hate me tonight after using the bathtub method of stretching my boots.</span></span><br />
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And as I sit here in 3 layers of socks and soaking wet leather boots, praying they would dry faster, i still have to wonder, w<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">hy do I want to put myself through this?</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">But it's all so much fun, I've had more XC experience than anything and thats the best part.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">I actually feel very lucky to have been introduced to the sport of Eventing. I have been missing something that takes hard work and a new desire to learn. I'm also very happy to find that it was compared to my favorite sport. If you have read this far and remember to ask; ask me about when I completely botched my walk-up song my senior year and see if you can guess what song I went to bat with for one game.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">I don't know how to describe how excited I am to finally take Riles to a show! I'm so happy Maggie has gotten the horses she has, each one holds something special to me, even mr. big head (Cole Power i.e. Cole) already. Will taught me so much and Riley was there from the start, and I even have learned a little on Cole, my goal is just to get a ribbon in anything on each...and then take Ransom the Wonder Pony to Rolex ;)</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">John</span></span>Team Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646135267139653078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511202924305554844.post-17492315089171839232013-03-12T15:21:00.000-07:002013-03-12T15:21:12.326-07:00MilestonesIn the horse world, as in all aspects of life, it's helpful to mark progress in achievements and milestones reached. They can be big or small, but whatever they are, it's always nice to look back where you came from and know you've been moving forward.<br />
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This past month, Cole tried to put on his big boy pants and went to his first ever dressage show. It was his first trip off the farm since his surgery and he had to brave it alone since Riley, his moral support, had to stay home with a stone bruise. It was not the outstanding dressage debut that I would've loved, but when I entered Cole in the show, I knew it wouldn't be. I did, however, know it would be a great learning experience and a venue where Cole could be as good or bad as he wanted to be with no high stakes involved. It seems as though other people also chose the show for that reason, because despite being very tense in his tests, Cole got 2nd place in Intro B and 3rd place in the eventing percentage class for doing Beginner Novice A. I'm especially proud of Cole because he'd only been working for a short while and cantering again post-layup for about a week or two before the show. The best part is that the basic parts are there and it can only get better with more experience off the farm and more progressive training. I think he'll start jumping again soon so that we can get back on track to a beginner novice event sometime this spring/summer season.<br />
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<i>It was nice and cold (and snowy) for Cole's first show.</i></div>
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<i>Cole trying to behave.</i></div>
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More importantly than Cole's first dressage show (although don't get me wrong, it was a big deal for him!) was an enormous milestone for me this past weekend: I braved my first out-of-state show since losing Will almost a year ago. Approaching the trip, I had all sorts of doubts and fears. It's one thing to experience the sudden and tragic death of a horse, it's another to do it far away from the comfort of home. In Lexington, I regularly work with fantastic vets, I have close access to two top-notch equine hospitals if my regular vets are unavailable, and in the worst case scenario, I trust the Lexington Disease and Diagnostic Lab to perform a necropsy. If something happens while traveling away from home, I have to put all of my trust into unfamiliar people and institutions and hope for the best. And while the timing was right to go to Southern Pines HT, I couldn't ignore that I'm still approaching the one year anniversary of losing Will and that the show was located relatively close to the Ark in North Carolina where he died.<br />
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Thankfully despite all of the bad memories and dreadful fears, the weekend was a huge success. Riley once again stepped up and impressed me with what a wonderful horse he is. Two weeks before the show, he had unfortunately turned up lame with a stone bruise. He more or less had those two weeks off, so when we left for North Carolina, he was sound again, but hadn't had a good dressage or jump school for some time. My goal, then, was to simply complete the show with a healthy, sound horse at the end of the weekend. If we bombed one or more of the phases, I was willing to attribute it to not having schooled enough before the show.<br />
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As it turned out, we didn't have the best dressage and we pulled a rail in SJ, but I would by no means say we bombed any part of the show. Riley put in a solid dressage test considering the circumstances. In show jumping we had a great round, but I kind of pushed him to the #2 fence and he pulled the rail. Otherwise I felt like our jump lessons have been paying off and was very happy with the round.<br />
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When it came time for cross country, I was extra stressed out about making it through safe and making it over the ditch. The water was also a bit difficult (but fair) for training, with a drop in to a bank out, 2 strides to a log stack. And as always (and once again considering the time off during the last two weeks before the show), I was concerned about Riley making the time since he usually struggles with that. The best part of XC was feeling all of my fears melt away as we galloped out of the start box and over the first fence. Riley easily breezed over everything and showed me a gear I've never seen before during the first half of the course- so much so that we cantered around the last 4 fences. The big fences felt easy, the more technical questions felt easy, and he even jumped the ditch in the half coffin without batting an eye. Once upon a time, cross country with Riley was very stressful because I didn't know where, when, or if he would stop. Now it's just plain fun and he makes it feel easy. Will left some very big shoes to fill, but Riley has proven that he's up to the job while Cole's busy growing up.<br />
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Passing up the huge milestone of my first out of state show in almost a year was a daunting task, but I'm so happy I had Riley with me to help and to once again give me courage when I needed it. The best part about having him back at home is just how often (and sometimes how loudly, like this weekend) he tells me that I have too low of expectations for him. Riley might not have the raw talent of other horses, but he more than easily makes up for it with his huge heart and how hard he tries. He may be hindered by medical issues, but he constantly impresses me with how much he can still do in spite of them.<br />
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Once again, I feel so lucky to have two wonderful horses. The past month has made me super excited for the coming show season and what it will hold for all of us, hopefully including more milestones like Cole's first events and Riley's first T3D. Will did a great job teaching me to enjoy my horses for who they are and to not measure success in ribbons. Knowing this, I think this show season will be a very, very successful one.Team Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646135267139653078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511202924305554844.post-70382975349996683942013-02-04T20:02:00.000-08:002013-02-04T20:02:14.672-08:00Snowventures! And Cole Finally Gets a JobI'm beginning to think that every time I schedule a Friday lesson and/or vet appointment, the world decides it needs to dump a bunch of snow and/or sleet and/or ice on Lexington (and Nicholasville). It might be one of those rules of nature that just is- you know, the same way it snows as soon as you wash your car (and if you live in Louisville or Lexington, that means there's more salt accumulation than snow accumulation, which then gets all over your no-longer-clean car). And I guess because I scheduled BOTH a vet appointment AND a lesson this past Friday, the world decided it would give Lexington some legit snow.<br />
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So while the roads were slushy enough to maybe merit a snow day for Fayette County schools, I bundled up and headed out to the barn to meet the vet. I guess after the big ordeal of the last month or so, Cole is finally starting to behave well (for Cole) for the vet. He got the rest of his stitches out (the high-tension stitches were removed first last Tuesday) and was cleared for regular turnout starting this week!<br />
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<i>The vet cleared him for small-space turnout on Wednesday. He was very happy to run!</i></div>
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<i>He also enjoyed rolling and bucking/squeaking.</i></div>
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Next was fun with Riley- since Ash Grove had already been salted, the sun was beginning to come out, and the jumping trainer has an awesome indoor, we decided to brave the elements and head out for our jump lesson. I was definitely late, but I'm really happy I went because I had a giant ah-ha moment during my lesson. I always get nervous about the first fence on course that I end up not having a good, forward rhythm and flubbing it every time. Riley also acts kind of spooky the first time he sees a particular fence, so I have to work on getting him to things boldly the first time and letting him take over after that. I had a second ah-ha moment when Joyce pointed out that I just kind of throw Riley away and let him figure things out when I don't see the perfect distance- so we worked on getting me to open up my shoulders and add leg to ride more confidently. Sometimes I think I've had Riley for so long that lessons on him rarely reveal new things, but even though I know him back and forth, it's nice to know that we can still improve. Because he knows his job so well, I've also realized it's nice to have some lessons on him so I can focus on fixing my issues without having to do a lot of training at the same time. The drive back was very pleasant as by then ALL the slush was melted. I was very happy to make it up the barn driveway and get everything unpacked and re-packed for Lakeside on Saturday.<br />
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I guess because the world did not successfully convince me to cancel my Friday jump lesson, it tried to exact its revenge on Saturday for my planned trip to Lakeside. However, being the hardcore crazy horseperson that I am, I wasn't about to let a little snow get in my way. I figured that my trip would be just like the day before- a little slushy, but nothing to really worry about. Apparently I was wrong, but thank god my dad was there to do the driving. About halfway there I realized maybe I really WAS crazy for still deciding to go, but we'd gone far enough that we might as well make it to Lakeside. After we were there, I was surprised to see that it was so busy. I thought for sure I'd be running late for my classes, but I had a looooong time to wait.<br />
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<i>I came out from entering my classes to discover this slush-sculpture that my dad and John made out of all the slush on the front of the trailer.</i></div>
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I entered what I normally do with Riley- the 2'6" Gambler's Choice as a warmup and the 3'-3'3" Schooling Jumpers. The Gambler's Choice was a great opportunity for me to work on doing tight turns while keeping the same forward rhythm. I was also really happy because even though Riley's been backed off of fences at Joyce's the first time he jumps them, he was easy to ride forward to the jumps the first time (it probably also helped that I was prepared!). Riley won the Gambler's Choice, which was awesome, but I think I'm going to have to stop entering it since it's probably too easy for us. Riley was also awesome for his Schooling Jumpers rounds- we had one or two bad distances, but I was thrilled with our jump-off round in the second class. We got nice distances, he made tight turns but still came forward out of them, and he was able to gallop and come back and balance when there was a lot of space between us and the next fence. He ended up winning both his classes and getting champion, making the day a huge success. We do the jumpers at Lakeside in the winter to practice jumping and memorizing courses, but mostly it's for Riley to go out and have fun since stadium is by far his favorite phase and he only gets one opportunity to do a course at an event. I also stress out a bit too much about stadium, so it's nice for me to relax and have fun over fences at a show. All I really have to do is look at my next fence in the jumpers and he's happy to make tight turns- I'm beginning to think a trained monkey could win the local jumpers with him!<br />
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Riley got a well-deserved day off yesterday (while we went to the U of L game to see the Firecrackers half-time show... seriously, if you've never seen them at a UK game, look them up! <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq_FxvFbYWE">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq_FxvFbYWE</a>).<br />
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And tonight, for the first time since November, I got to ride TWO horses! Cole just walked for 15 minutes, but I'm happy to say I lived to tell the tale- after how bad he's been to hand walk some days, I was very impressed at how content he was to practice his free walk. It's about time he got a job and started earning his keep, even if it's just short rides to start out with. And of course Riley was awesome- Red Gate's indoor has been SO nice to have this winter. Not only can I ride on crappy days like this at 7 PM at night, but having to use the indoor has made Riley much more balanced and forward regardless of the size of the space we ride in. I'm really excited to see if his dressage scores will drop at all this season since I definitely feel like we've been improving.<br />
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<i>Something I haven't seen in a long time! And of course it's blurry because he wouldn't stand still/stop trying to eat his reins.</i></div>
<br />Team Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646135267139653078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511202924305554844.post-8239993251020640182013-01-28T19:50:00.001-08:002013-01-28T19:50:11.535-08:00An Update and a Quick Reflection on the Eventer StereotypeWell, things have been quite busy around Team Riley lately. I'll get to the title/heart of this post in a bit, after an update. The boys had a quiet vacation at the farm while I also took a quiet vacation in Louisville over Christmas break. Well, actually, it was quiet until two days before I was supposed to come home, Cole bullied Riley into destroying a round pen panel. I have no idea what happened, but the gate panel doesn't look so hot. Riley survived the encounter with nothing but a few scratches.<br />
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<i>Cole looking innocent in his baby paddock. We all know the truth about him.</i></div>
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After their vacation, Riley got a big haircut and started back in work. Mostly he's been doing flatwork with me, but he's also been giving John the occasional jump lesson on weekends to get ready for John's show jumping debut.<br />
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<i>Riley was pretty excited about his bath.</i></div>
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<i>But he did get a pretty sweet butt design! The idea was courtesy of my dad.</i></div>
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Cole still had a little bit of time off from his surgery after break, so he was enjoying his half day turnout. I think he could sense that his 2 month vacation was coming to an end, so one week before I could ride him again, he ripped his left front leg open. When I found out it was the same leg where he had surgery I about had a heart attack, but somewhat thankfully it was further up his leg. Also thankfully, while he did a good job slicing it up, he managed to miss important structures, including going into his knee joint. Not so thankfully, he had a little bit of initial infection (calling for strong antibiotics), I still can't figure out how he did it, it was super swollen, and it required about a bazillion stitches and even more vet appointments. Back to being thankful, Dr. Beyer did a beautiful job sewing it up and other than some gross fibrous swelling over the front of his knee (that Dr. Beyer assures me is normal, despite my freak-outs about it), Cole has been healing pretty well. He even gets the stitches out tomorrow!<br />
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<i>Believe it or not, the top cut is over Cole's knee- you'd never know there was a joint there because of all the swelling.</i></div>
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<i>The first of many comically large bandages for Cole.</i></div>
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<i>The stitches (coated in Aluspray) after being in 4 days. </i></div>
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So thanks to his klutziness, Cole has been back in solitary confinement for the past 2+ weeks. We've been hand walking together for the past week and while some days he acts like a 1300 lb yearling, he's been pretty well behaved overall. He's also been a bit more sulky about his stall rest this time, but he perks up when he gets attention and he's even gotten two Uncle Jimmy's Hangin' Balls out of his additional stall rest. Hopefully the vet will have good news tomorrow about turnout and riding, since I think both of us are going stir crazy over all this stall rest.<br />
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Back to Riley, he's been nothing but awesome since coming back to work. Shortly into the year I had a big face-palm moment when I realized I wasn't happy with his flatwork practically all fall because he was popping his shoulder to the outside when we went to the left. So after a week spent doing way too many shoulder-ins, his shoulder has been more or less staying where it ought to and the quality of his flatwork to the left has increased drastically. It's been super-awesome to have access to an indoor this winter because even with my days ending later than I'd like and the weather being crummy, I've been able to keep riding. And the best side effect of the indoor is that while it's very small, suddenly Riley is much more balanced and neither of us feel so claustrophobic in a dressage ring. I think spending the winter riding inside more than I'd like is actually going to be good for us because if I can get him to move forward well in the indoor, I ought to be able to do just as well in a dressage ring.<br />
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Finally to the title of my post. Before Cole had his surgery and before she left for Florida, I took Cole off the farm for a lesson with a local pure dressage trainer. She was highly recommended and when we started the lesson, I told her a little bit about me and my horse. First, she was very surprised that Cole was an OTTB because he's so big and he's pretty balanced for a green horse. Second, she complimented me on my riding because I'd admitted that I was an eventer. I was scared about what she would think of my riding because there's a stereotype of a "dressage queen"- a prissy dressage purist. I was happy to find out that a) she was down to earth and NOT a dressage queen and b) she didn't think too poorly of my riding. As a side note, the lesson was AMAZING and I definitely plan on taking more with her when she gets back from Florida.<br />
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This past weekend I took another lesson off the farm, this time on Riley with a local hunter/jumper trainer. Once again, I admitted that I was an eventer, but that I wanted my show jumping rounds to be a little less get-er-done and a little more pretty. Once again, I got a comment along the lines that I ride much better than she thought I would, being an eventer and all. Hunter/jumpers have the stereotype of the "hunter princess," who cares not only about being pretty over the fences, but also about whether everything from her boots to her helmet to the breed of her horse is in fashion. This trainer had once again come highly recommended, so the lesson went well (she was very down to earth, too) and I think our show jumping rounds with be smoother and more polished if I keep at it.<br />
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So to bring it all home, while these prissy, somewhat stuck-up stereotypes of dressage riders and hunter riders exist, apparently when you take the two disciplines and shove them into one weekend along with some cross country, you get a stereotype of a scary backyard get-er-done type of rider. I know my riding is rough around the edges, and I know I've seen some scary riding at events, but I didn't know we had our own stereotypes! (Other than, of course, having terrible fashion sense and loving our colors a bit too much.) And of course I'm happy my riding isn't so awful as to fit into said stereotype, even if my fashion sense is (<i>see</i> my awesome purple trailer). Judging from my first two lessons I think my 2013 adventures in pure dressage and pure jumpers will be both highly educational and entertaining at the same time!<br />
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Oh, and a few more pictures that didn't fit in elsewhere:<br />
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<i>Poor Riley had to get up from his nap to go to his jumping lesson.</i></div>
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Team Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646135267139653078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511202924305554844.post-67923713730137855382012-12-24T09:57:00.001-08:002012-12-24T09:59:41.982-08:00Merry Christmas!Team Riley is on Christmas Break and can't wait for Santa to come! Riley's list is longer that ever, he wants soooo many treats, carrots and peppermints. Cole just wants furry wolf boots that fit.<br />
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And here is the latest holiday edition of Horsin' 'Round<br />
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And here is the first ever Team Riley Christmas Card!</div>
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Team Riley wishes everyone a Merry Christmas and happy holiday season!</div>
Team Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646135267139653078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511202924305554844.post-17328693796234252302012-11-22T07:36:00.000-08:002012-11-22T07:36:33.982-08:00Happy Thanksgiving from Team Riley!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
First off, all of us here at Team Riley want to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving! Since giving thanks on Thanksgiving is the cool thing to do, I thought I'd share what I'm thankful for today.</div>
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<b>What I'm Thankful For:</b></div>
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Of course I'm thankful for the basics- I'm so lucky that I was born where and when I was, to the family I was born to. I have a roof over my head, central heating in the winter, central air in the summer, plenty of food, plenty of clothes, and a good education. Not everyone is so lucky and it's easy to forget just how lucky I am.<br />
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Next, and quite obviously, I'm thankful for my horses.<br />
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I'm thankful that Riley is currently healthy and sound. He's had a rough year with a suspensory injury and EPM, but he seems to refuse to give up. Not only am I thankful for his health, but I'm so thankful that he was willing to take me back to my first two horse trials since losing Will (and to even win his first training in three years!).<br />
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I'm thankful that I'm able to have a second horse to (hopefully grow up and) do what Riley physically can't. I'm thankful that things are finally starting to click for me and Cole. I'm also thankful that Cole is healthy and made it through his bone chip surgery in one piece. </div>
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Most days I'm thankful that my horses are absolutely rotten, because I don't think they'd be so entertaining if they were perfectly behaved. While I could do without Cole eating my nice bridles, martingale, Riley's halter, etc., his antics, as well as Riley's, are pretty darn adorable.<br />
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I'm thankful that John puts up with me, and that instead of being intimidated by the horses or trying to maintain a good distance from them, he has taken up riding. I'm not sure what amazes me more- the fact that he comes to the barn with me on weekends (when I spend way too much time out there), or the fact that after spending too many weekends at the barn, he doesn't mind spending the weekend at a horse show (and helping to groom and keep me in one piece!).<br />
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Finally I'm so, so thankful to have such an awesome family. My parents are unbelievably supportive through both the good times and the bad. Some parents are ambivalent, but I'm so thankful that mine genuinely enjoy having horses as a part of our family and care about them as much as I do. </div>
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Oh, and one last thing. I think the boys are both pretty thankful that I did make them craft hoof-turkeys and write down what they're thankful for! (We all know they're a bit ungrateful- after all, they work hard and <i>deserve</i> all the love, treats and care they get!)</div>
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<br />Team Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646135267139653078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511202924305554844.post-1638318540798338912012-11-21T17:49:00.002-08:002012-11-21T21:51:33.824-08:00October and November, all rolled into oneApparently it's been so long since the last update that even Will noticed, and said something about it. In the meantime, Team Riley has been very, very busy with horse things and law school things alike.<br />
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October was a pretty quiet month for the horses, unless you count Cole trying to kill himself a few times (what's new?). First, Cole decided he would be a jerk in the bridle, especially to the right. So I scheduled a chiropractic appointment, and when the chiropractor came, she noticed that we had bigger problems than a potentially stuck neck. Cole had swelling on his face, and unfortunately it was in a great spot to be indicative of an abscessed tooth root. The vet came out, x-rays were taken (for the second time in nearly a month), and thankfully like his raging proud flesh that was x-rayed before, it was all soft tissue.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_bYYa7Epiudj89rnQ6d9aqBtAmEVq_q22WfXvos31iWGnDPjbQOjpQfNhNG2v_z8nW7nRoDnd4STiA0-RvdzHZvq8J-aMv8W6pLgD1T4Zilr1R0ON3g3u7-aPMuImLuWKuARthc9727zG/s1600/IMG_0269.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_bYYa7Epiudj89rnQ6d9aqBtAmEVq_q22WfXvos31iWGnDPjbQOjpQfNhNG2v_z8nW7nRoDnd4STiA0-RvdzHZvq8J-aMv8W6pLgD1T4Zilr1R0ON3g3u7-aPMuImLuWKuARthc9727zG/s320/IMG_0269.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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<i>The vet recommended a hot water compress, which meant that I had to <strike>hold a hot towel</strike> tie a hot towel to his face with a polo wrap for 10 minutes. Cole still hasn't caught on that banging yourself up results in such torture!</i></div>
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A week later, his face looked better, but he was still a jerk, so again the chiropractor came out. Thankfully he didn't have many issues, but not so thankfully he didn't have many issues to blame his jerk-ness on. She also noticed some considerable swelling in his right mandible, by his throat latch, so again the vet came out. The vet wasn't too concerned, and after finding the right combination of goop to put on it (furazone and epsom salts, for those interested), the swelling went down and Cole was back to normal, minus trying to rip out my right arm occasionally.<br />
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The first weekend of November, Cole had a great adventure at the Jimmy Wofford clinic. Besides an episode in which he reared while being tacked up at the trailer, he was a very, very good boy. He even stood on the trailer like a grown-up while we watched one of the other groups ride. The clinic itself went really well- Cole jumped everything he was asked to on day 1 and seemed to process the gymnastics well. On day 2 brakes and turning in the open was quite questionable, so I was pretty nervous about having him do XC. But he stepped up to the plate well and jumped everything we asked him to (even if he did refuse the roll top once or twice).<br />
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<i>Sadly John's camera died after taking three pictures, so this is the best photographic evidence we have of the clinic.</i></div>
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The best part of the Jimmy Wofford clinic by far was riding Cole afterwards. I jumped Cole over a little gymnastic in the indoor on the Friday night following the clinic and he seemed quicker to process the question. On Saturday Riley and Cole both went to Lakeside for a jumper show and Cole really stepped up to the plate. I hadn't ridden him over a course for some time, but he got in the ring and was looking for the next jump. The difference between jumping Cole before the clinic and jumping him after the clinic was amazing. He's definitely given me a lot of hope that he's going to be game and smart about the jumping.<br />
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<i>Cole did not enjoy dress-up time, even though he won a blue ribbon and reserve champion for his 2' division!</i></div>
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Riley was also a super star at Lakeside, winning 3 of his 4 classes! He got champion in his schooling jumpers division and was tied for champion in the children's/adult jumpers. Sadly, though, he was even more unhappy than Cole about dress up time. We didn't really get a good picture of him in all his ribbons (plus I kind of forgot to pick up one of his blues... but I think we have enough Lakeside blues that we were ok without it).<br />
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The day after Lakeside, Cole had to load up in the trailer again to go take a dressage lesson. Not only was he very grown-up about getting on the trailer and being tied to it, but he was VERY good in the actual lesson. We got a refresher on the spiral-in, spiral-out exercise which helped Cole a TON and Cole successfully cantered many 20 meter circles. At the end of the lesson he learned how to stretch and it's now his favorite thing- I'm sure he also likes to rub it in Riley's face that after practicing it once he was much, much better at it than Riley.<br />
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The Tuesday after our big horse show-dressage lesson weekend, Riley decided that he'd worked too much and needed a few days off. Presumably while rolling, he did something to really tick off his eye so that it was swollen and light-sensitive. I think that I'm going to need to invest in one of those signs, the kind that say "it's been __ days" since the last <strike>accident on the job site</strike> vet call. I think we were at a little over two weeks until Riley ruined it.<br />
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On Wednesday we stayed busy with a farrier appointment. For possibly the first time ever, Riley got compliments on his feet. Cole got his shoes pulled in anticipation for his big surgery this week. While chatting with the farrier about Cole (and how no one believes he's a Thoroughbred), I found out that he also shoes The Cliff's Edge, who is Cole's sire. Apparently Cole not only gets his good feet from his dad, but also gets a bit of his inquisitive, mouthy personality from him.<br />
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This past weekend, I took the opportunity to savor my last two rides on Cole for the next two months. On Sunday, John and I took the boys on a big walk around the back hay field after I helped John jump his first stadium course (ok, mini-course, but it was a good 6 or so jumps strung together). I can't wait for John and Riley to tear it up at beginner novice once they get their dressage game on!<br />
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Monday was the big day that I've pretty much been dreading since the day I bought Cole. We found a small bone chip on his pre-purchase exam and decided that it wasn't a big enough problem to not buy him, but that it ought to be taken out if I wanted him to stay sound in the long-term for an upper level career. My dad came down to Lexington on Sunday night and we woke up very bright and early to load Cole on the trailer and have him at Lexington Equine Surgery by 8 AM. It was a pleasant surprise to see someone that I'd once boarded with at the clinic and she made me feel at ease about the surgery. In fact everyone involved, from the surgeon to the anesthesiologist to the vet tech, was super nice. The vet was happy to answer questions and explain everything to me. I stuck around to watch and while some points were a bit scary (seeing Cole on his side was a bit terrifying, until I realized that I could see his barrel rising and that he was indeed breathing), the surgery itself was quick and went well.<br />
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<i>Cole immediately post-surgery, before his leg was wrapped all the way up.</i></div>
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I had to leave for class before he got up and was fully awake, but my parents stuck around to make sure he was ok and to take him back to the barn. It was so, so nice of them to keep me company during the surgery- my mom had to come later, but she managed to make it in time to see everything and to make sure it went well. </div>
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<i>Back at the barn and all settled in to his stall! Thanks to my mom for sending me this picture to confirm that he was ok.</i></div>
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Thankfully everything has been very quiet since Monday and I'm hoping it'll stay that way through Cole's recovery. I'm very pleased with the end to the season that we had- a successful clinic, a successful horse show, and a successful dressage lesson. More importantly, I'm SO relieved that this surgery, the prospect and logistics of which have been like a black cloud following me around, is done. Cole had minimal joint damage, but it sounds like it was good to take the chip out before we started doing any really hard work. There's still some risk with his recovery, but the worst of it is over and hopefully it will be smooth sailing to January, when we can start back up. </div>
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Team Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646135267139653078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511202924305554844.post-8841589114239088612012-11-14T13:48:00.002-08:002012-11-14T13:51:06.017-08:00SlackersWell, since mom and John are being such slackers lately, guess I'll write a little bit. First I'd like to start by complimenting everyone on their Halloween costumes. If you all didn't see the latest Horsin' 'Round; Riley was a unicorn with an awesome rainbow horn and rainbow tail, Cole was Harry Trotter, I'm amazed the wand was still intact considering how much he chews things, and I was a Pirate. I really liked John's Lawn Jockey costume, he may have looked like a jockey, but I know he would have had a hard time riding my gallop. I was really sad to see that Maggie didn't get to dress up though (she had a 15 page paper due for law school the next day) she always makes the best costumes.<br />
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<em>Horsin' 'Round Halloween Edition</em></div>
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<em>John as a Lawn Jockey</em></div>
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I tried to go haunt Riley and Cole that night, but they wouldn't let me. They said I had to wait until next year. I guess since they had just moved into their new barn mom didn't want them to get scared of the place right away. I just wanted to hear Riley's girly neigh once. Oh well, at least I got tons of carrots and Willie Muffins trick or treatin', no razor blade apples though, I hear you have to watch out for those.<br />
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Lately I've been envying Riles. Since he has never had to work his butt off in the winter like I did, he hasn't gotten clipped yet. He gets to roll in the mud all he wants, good lord he's always a mess. I'll have to get John to snap a picture of him soon. If you didn't know it yet, John has taken up a new job with Team Riley, (with the help of me of course) he's the new head of social media too. If you didn't know yet we now have a facebook: Team Riley Eventing, and a twitter: @TeamRileyEvent. I do most of the tweeting, I still don't understand why its a "tweet". I think it should be a "neigh" but they never asked my opinion.<br />
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Looks like the holidays are coming up fast! Lucky for me they don't start playing Christmas music up here until December. Why would anyone want to pass up Thanksgiving, all the carrots and veggies you can eat. I know Riley will be pigging out, probably going paddock to paddock looking for leftovers. It's a shame Maggie can't decorate Riley's and Cole's stalls anymore. She did a great job for the Fourth of July and I loved the pumpkins. I really would have enjoyed seeing Cole trying to eat a string of hand turkeys for Thanksgiving.<br />
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Well I'm off to go eat the last of my Halloween treats. I have to go on starvation diet tomorrow so I can pig out on Thanksgiving. I still have to keep my figure to impress the ladies up here.<br />
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-WillTeam Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646135267139653078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511202924305554844.post-56107447166497438982012-10-06T13:30:00.002-07:002012-10-06T13:30:36.742-07:00Practically Perfect Ponies and Pretty Ribbons<br />
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Life has been rolling on at an extraordinarily fast pace, so unfortunately the updates have been a bit fewer and farther between lately (that pesky law school thing gets in the way). But since the last post, Cole has decided that he doesn't like the idea of being Coleslaw and Riley has really stepped up to try and fill in Will's shoes. </div>
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I was a bit distraught about Cole after taking him to KY Classique. He was so badly behaved, and he's been so badly behaved on other off-the-farm outings that I was beginning to wonder if it was more of a I-hate-being-off-the-farm thing than a green-horse thing (some horses are just like that). Thankfully over the past few weeks he's been trying his best to behave on field trips and convince me that he's just green, and he'll hopefully grow out of it. </div>
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The Sunday after Classic, we trailered over to the KHP for XC schooling. Cole let me know that he's going to have issues with changes in footing (i.e. grass to gravel) and light-to-dark. Other than the not-jump-issues, though, he was perfect! He jumped several starter fences and didn't bat an eye at the water. My goal with him has been to take it easy, since there's no reason to push him and risk backing him off, especially since he had almost no jumping experience when I got him. We brought Riley along for moral support for Cole and John was able to jump him over everything that Cole did. John even hacked Cole around for the second half of our schooling while I made Riley jump big boy things to see if he felt ready to go training again.</div>
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<i>Riley loves XC schooling when John's the rider!</i></div>
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Cole also went to his first "horse show" the weekend after schooling. We went up to the Oldham County Fairgrounds for a small, local schooling-type show. It was no KHP, but he saw bleachers, screaming children, and plenty of other horses going in all directions around him. There were no Vietnam-style track flashbacks, and he was almost well-behaved enough to place well. I think he could sense when the judge was looking, though, because those were the only times he threw some bucks. </div>
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<i>Looking deceptively well-behaved.</i></div>
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<i>Second! (...out of two.) He was a total champ for being so well-behaved though- he even cantered for this class.</i></div>
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This past weekend, I loaded both boys up on the trailer for round two of Cole's KHP show adventures. Cole was my non-compete, and Riley was signed up for training(!) at Jumpstart. This weekend was Riley's first attempt at a training level event since 2009, when I gave up on him and bought Will as an older brother to Riley who would actually jump the scary fences. Sunday was also the 6 month mark since losing Will, and I can't help but think that he was giving Riley some of his bravery on cross country. </div>
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Friday night was a whirlwind of baths and schooling, and thank god my mom was there to help. We took both boys down to the dressage fields so I could school one after another, which was the only way I could've gotten both ridden. Riley was pretty good for the super crummy, swampy footing, and Cole was actually safely rideable above a walk (a huge improvement over Classic).</div>
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On Saturday, the footing had dried up a bit, but not very much. The warmup was complete slop, so we opted for a dry-ish grassy patch to warm up on. My warmup was pretty good and my test would've gone well if I didn't let Riley snowball out of control at the end. It was definitely better than it has been in the past, but I botched the last 4 movements. My goal was to score under 40 and we just barely squeaked by with a 39.6. </div>
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I didn't have much time between dressage and XC, so I headed back to the barns and started getting Riles ready. The footing was a bit sloppy and the air was somewhat muggy (and Riley was borderline fit enough...), so Riley got to sport some of Will's big kid studs as well as a Flair strip. Warmup went well, although it's never very encouraging to see a fellow competitor crash into the warmup fence. </div>
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We left the start box and Riley was rocking and rolling, albeit in his trademark giraffe style. The first few fences rode very easy and set him up well for the meat of the course, which started with a formidable double brush for #5. #6 was the clover cutouts on a 1 or 2 stride line, which I knew wouldn't be a problem. #7 was called the "fern display" and was a shared fence with prelim. I kept telling myself it'd ride fine, but it certainly was a little bit looky and VERY big when I walked it. Of course Riley being himself, it rode great, and the stone wall-ramp right after it was like a twig after he cleared #7. The next fences I had to worry about were #12A/B and #13A/B. #12 was a relatively small log, but was placed at the top of a small hill where I was concerned Riley might slip, and had a sharp turn to the B log. Of course slipping wasn't an issue, and there was tons of time to turn to the B and get a nice jump over it. </div>
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<i>Giraffe face before fence #2.</i></div>
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<i>His belly barely cleared the straw rack, fence #10.</i></div>
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<i>The bunker, fence #11.</i></div>
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<i>#12A and down the hill.</i></div>
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<i>Turn to #12B.</i></div>
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<i>#12B.</i></div>
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The scariest fence on course was next, and consisted of a HUGE ditch and a couple strides to a skinny-ish brush. The ditch lives right next to the Rolex sunken road, and I heard rumors that it was on the prelim and intermediate courses at Classic. It was definitely both wide and deep, with tons of room for horse eating monsters inside. It's probably a good thing that the photographer didn't get any pictures of Riley jumping the ditch, because while he was a very good boy and ignored the monsters trying to eat him, it wasn't exactly pretty. We came up to the ditch in a fastish coffin canter after I'd shown him my whip to make sure he knew I wasn't scared of beating him. He got up to the ditch, thought for a second about jumping, then thought again about running out to the left, and then finally decided that he'd better go ahead and jump it. We landed well to the left of our line to #13B, more on track for the prelim skinny/C element or a total runout of the complex. But we got it together and wiggled our way to #13B and jumped it from what felt like practically a stand still. I was so proud of him, but the rough-and-tumble riding there carried over to the next two fences, after which we got our groove back.</div>
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<i>Over the brush!</i></div>
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<i>Just a little long...</i></div>
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<i>Galloping on.</i></div>
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The rest of the course rode beautifully. The last big questions were the bank complex and water complex, where of course he had no issues. Besides jumping the ditch, I was most proud that he came in 20 seconds under optimum time because that was an issue for us the two times we actually completed training level events (it's kind of obvious when riding him on XC why he wasn't a very good race horse!). We were 7th after dressage, but a few of the top horses had trouble making the time, so we moved up to 3rd after cross county. </div>
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That afternoon I was able to ride Cole again and he was much better with Riley there as moral support. I figured out that he's fine with everything in the dressage fields <i>except</i> the big buildings on the far side and the arena closest to them- the Museum of the Horse, the Visitor's Center, and the USHJA headquarters all seem to collectively freak him out. Elsewhere around the KHP he had no issues with the Big Barn, the old indoor, or tents pitched in some of the arenas in anticipation of the Kentucky National - it was isolated to that group of big buildings right by the dressage complex. I'm not sure if it reminds him of the racetrack or what, but that seemed to be the only issue. Otherwise he was a very good boy and was much better behaved all around the park.</div>
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<i>Riley was working very hard while babysitting Cole.</i></div>
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On Sunday, I was the last division to show jump in my assigned arena, so we had most of the morning to relax. I had enough time that I quickly re-braided Riley and then John and I took the boys around for a walk and to graze. Sadly we missed the Pony's show jumping round, but we were able to catch his awards ceremony. </div>
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We got Riley ready and headed up to the SJ arena, where I was a bit early. I went with my normal early warmup protocol and jumped several fences before giving Riley a break. I picked him back up with only a few rides in front of me and suddenly turned my brain off. My warmup turned into a bit of disaster, and I even had an unplanned emergency dismount at the warmup oxer (although in our slight defense, I'm pretty sure the front rail was actually taller than the back rail). Thankfully that knocked some sense into me and I had a few good jumps before heading over to the competition ring. </div>
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My show jumping round itself wasn't that bad. We chipped in to the second fence and maybe had one other ugly fence, but overall it wasn't the kind that makes people gasp and think "wow, they're still alive!" at the end of it. I had plenty of faith in Riley, but was still thrilled when he left all the rails up, especially because rails had been flying all morning. </div>
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All that was left was to see where we ended the weekend- whether we kept our third or had managed to move up. The announcer took a moment to give out a special award to the lowest-scoring senior amateur in the training rider division, and I was VERY surprised when I heard my name called over loudspeaker! </div>
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After the Play For Keeps award was presented, they still had the division left to place. At this point I'd realized that Riley had won, but was still in a bit of disbelief. I've definitely never led a victory gallop before, so I wasn't sure how to start things off or how to go about it. All in all, Riley won a cooler, a lunchbox, a saddle pad, a basket full of apples and peppermints, and a big blue ribbon. I was so proud of him for being such a good boy the entire weekend, and the first place was just icing on the cake.</div>
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<i>Stupid-Pony Picture Time!</i></div>
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<i>Riley's favorite part of winning!</i></div>
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Later that afternoon Riley took John cross country schooling while Cole went around and jumped several starter and beginner novice fences. I could probably do without some of Cole's enthusiasm (especially about yanking out my left arm), but I was very proud of him for jumping everything I asked him to. </div>
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Overall the weekend was very successful and I was very proud of both boys for being so awesome. Riley's had an easy week since and has been sure to eat several of the apples he won each day I've visited him this week. </div>
Team Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646135267139653078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511202924305554844.post-33379030348747051302012-09-24T08:01:00.003-07:002012-09-24T08:02:31.557-07:00Willard Plans a Jump Start PartyWow, I'm soooo proud of Mom, Riley and Cole, its hard to even put into words! First, Riley and Maggie bring home 6th place (John's favorite color ribbon...Green). Second, even though Cole got the crazies left over from me, he did great out at the Horse Park schooling. Last, Cole went even further and brought home his first two ribbons for Team Riley!<br />
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Its been a hoof biter up here watching over the Team, but what can I say? I'm extremely happy. Riley and Mom pulled together at Kentucky Classique. I'm so proud of Maggie, she had been soooo stressed before hand, but I knew she could do it. And I'm so happy that Riles was the one to help her make it, I wouldn't have put that on any other horse in my eyes. I knew he would get her through it, and I was very glad to see her out on the cross country coarse again. I know it was stressful for her, but she needed it, I always had a blast running XC but it was also blast watching her ride XC. Thats why we keep Riley around though. When the going gets tough, he's right there to take care of everything.<br />
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I got a little nervous though seeing Mom on Cole that weekend. He had no idea what he got himself into. At least we know when the time comes he can piaffe, lets just see if he can do it on command.<br />
It looked like Cole redeemed himself though and it looks like he's going to love running cross country too. I'm trying to send him some of my vibes, but I'm still trying to figure out how to send the good ones, not so much the crazy ones. Just look at the two, already bringing home two ribbons! Looks like I did a good job at teaching Maggie how to rein in a wild and crazy beast.<br />
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Of course I have to say how impressed I was with John, going cross country schooling for the first time. Finally starting to get the hang of cantering. I'm a little sad though that he never got to take me schooling. I'm happy he got to jump me once or twice, but it would've been fun taking him over some logs, mom probably would have been nervous about, but I would have taken care of John.<br />
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Last but not least I'll be cheering on Riles and Maggie this weekend at Jump Start. My baby brother is growing on up, going Training! I get to watch all the shows I want on my new big screen. Lets just hope that belly of his doesn't get him stuck over any jumps. It'd be hilarious to see, but I want mom to make it all the way around. Maybe I'll get John to head out there early in the morning and grease the jumps so he'll slide right over. All my new friends are coming over to cheer on all our friends from the barn. We've got the fridge filled, the bar stocked and an endless supply of carrots and squeezy buns to munch on.<br />
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Keep up the good work Team Riley! I'm always watching!<br />
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-WillardTeam Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646135267139653078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511202924305554844.post-86427289741332011042012-09-08T07:10:00.002-07:002012-09-08T07:10:36.788-07:00Riley's Coming Out of Retirement TourThis past Friday was a big day for me, Will, Riley, and even Cole. As of Friday, Will's officially been gone 5 months. Looking ahead to September from five months ago, I would've thought we'd have a few more prelims under our belt and be looking ahead to AECs and the CCI*. Riley would've still been on lease with his little girl. Two months ago, I was beginning to settle in to the idea that Riley just wanted to retire. And I was definitely convinced that I might never find a new show horse. A few weeks ago, I crossed my fingers and entered Riley in the open novice at Kentucky Classique and signed Cole up as a non-compete horse.<br />
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The jumps this past weekend were maxed out at 2'11", but I feel like we made it over some much bigger hurtles. For one, we all know Riley's dreamed long and hard about retirement. He started thinking about it before he even began showing, when he tried to kill himself before his first two events (#1 he tried to eat an electrical outlet and #2 he got a huge puncture wound in his shoulder). When he was diagnosed with kissing spines, his future seemed bright, but he was determined to prove otherwise (by dumping me in a few ditches and telling me that as much as I'd love to go training, it just wasn't his thing...). And this spring he'd almost talked me into turning him out once and for all, when it seemed that although his suspensory strain had healed, something else just wasn't right. Thankfully I didn't give up on him and was able to figure out that it was EPM, and he's come back as strong and healthy as ever. Riley's last show was in October of last year, before the suspensory and EPM issues.<br />
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As for the other hurtles, last Friday was also, obviously, the 5 month anniversary of my last show. At first I'd missed showing desperately, and was so jealous any time someone at the barn left with their horse for the weekend. But the longer I went, the easier it was, until showing just seemed like a terrible idea. My mental demons told me that Riley is terrible at dressage and that we'd be stuck at the bottom of the pack, because novice tends to be a glorified dressage competition. The show jumping demons were even there, reminding me that the last time I show jumped I had to rely on my wonderful horse to save our butt when I couldn't see or ride the distances. And worst of all, the thought of a cross country start box made my mind go wild with all that happened the last time I galloped out of one. I've had more than a few breakdowns over this whole first-show-back thing in the weeks leading up to it.<br />
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So with that being said, this weekend was the one to start moving on and getting over those awfully big hurtles. On Friday, both boys got a bath before a short trailer ride over to the KHP. John thankfully unpacked everything while I took Riley for a spin around the dressage fields, which turned out to be more nerve wracking for me than it ought to of. When I stopped showing, my nerves were 100% under control and I was able to tune out everything to get the best out of my horse. When I rode on Friday, it was like all of that had gone down the drain and I was back to square one. After my ride I attempted to make braids of Riley's 3 mane hairs and tucked the boys in for the night.<br />
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Despite nearly having a breakdown on the way down to dressage, I was able to pull it together and get a decent warmup before what I thought was a very nice test for Riley. I could've been a bit more ballsy in some of the moves, but I thought it was a pretty good test, and although it put us 12th out of 14, I thought a 34.5 was a great score.<br />
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<i>Dressage judges never like Riley much, but I thought he put it a pretty solid test!</i></div>
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Next up was cross country, which I was kind of dreading. The course was tough, and I knew Riley wouldn't have any issues, but it still didn't keep me from worrying. Worse yet, the first 3 people out on course had refusals and run-outs. I kept telling myself that those were green horses, but my racing heart didn't want to believe that. We took off out of the start box and Riley ran around the course like the old pro that he is. He easily cleared every jump and was happy to gallop along at a pretty fast pace. I let him choose his own pace for the first half of the course, which meant that at the halfway mark I had to make him trot for a bit to avoid speed fault penalties (we were almost 2 minutes ahead of time, agh!!). Running through the finish flags gave me the biggest feeling of relief as well as gratitude towards Riley. Riley knows his job, knows that he doesn't have to do his job if he doesn't want to, but was still happy to pack me and all my baggage around the XC course.<br />
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<i>Beka and Caesar made it just in time to see our XC! It was really nice of them to come down, plus we found out that Caesar likes horses- and really likes shavings.</i></div>
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<i>I had been a bit concerned that Riley wasn't fit enough, but that certainly wasn't the case! I love this picture because I didn't even know Riley could get all 4 feet off the ground, let alone tuck in that big ol' belly of his!</i></div>
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<i>I asked Riley to take off a bit long here, causing him to rub his hind feet on the fence, but he was still happy to clear it, even with the extra effort it took</i></div>
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<i>Riley has his XC smile back!</i></div>
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<i>Getting a bit excited and not wanting to slow down...</i></div>
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<i>The A/B Red Forts were some of the biggest jumps on course, so of course Riley made them feel easy</i></div>
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<i>Riley through the Head of the Lake!</i></div>
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<i>After XC</i></div>
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As a side note, I attempted to ride Cole around on Saturday, but he doesn't like a) the KHP in general and b) the KHP when he's all by himself in the dressage fields. I found out that Cole can apparently piaffe, although I think in pure dressage they like the horse to be round and collected, not hollow and freaked out. We joked about blowing Cole's mind, but apparently it was actually blown. Cole's just going to have to have lots of outings before his first real show, starting with XC at the KHP this Sunday.<br />
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Sunday brought stadium jumping and a double clear round on what was apparently a tough SJ, judging from the scores. I missed two distances, but Riley didn't have a problem with saving my butt and clearing the fence regardless. He was actually pretty cute, because he kept getting his eye on other fences in an attempt to make the course a bit harder and more like a jumpers course. Riley might be accompanying his little brother to some winter jumpers shows to keep him entertained.<br />
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<i>Riley thinks he looks stylish in Dad's new hat!</i></div>
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Despite being utterly terrified of every phase, I survived the weekend and finished in 6th place on a dressage score of 34.5. I even was able to throw a few smiles, particularly when I managed to move up from 9th place AND not get a poo brown ribbon (for those readers not in the know, 8th place is poo brown), which I have thankfully thus far avoided in my 6 year eventing career. Riley also seemed content to be back at work, even though I'm sure he'll regret it as soon as he remembers what being the Team Riley Work Horse entails (all that conditioning! the dressage! getting his belly to clear jumps! so much work!). On Sunday he was almost too tired to chew up his carrots.<br />
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<i>Not poo brown!?</i></div>
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<i>Not poo brown! Me and Riley both seemed a bit concerned about the ribbon flying on his face and the impending victory gallop.</i></div>
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<i>Post-braiding fro-time!</i></div>
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<i>So very tired- poor little guy.</i></div>
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For more pictures from our successful weekend, be sure to check out the flickr (the link is in the top right-hand corner of this page)!</div>
<br />Team Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646135267139653078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511202924305554844.post-85679835932621881872012-08-08T08:24:00.002-07:002012-08-08T08:24:07.614-07:00While mom is away...Riley will do whatever he can to not workThis past weekend Maggie took a trip down to Tampa Bay, Florida to pick up a moped (if you asked her back around age 16 it would be pronounced mope'd, as in the past tense of mope) that she has been itching to get for a long time. It was even the right color, royal blue. This way we wouldn't have to pull off a amateur paint job and now all it needs are some purple flames. This means I finally get my noble steed, The Iron Horse, all to myself again. I know Maggie thinks it would be hilarious to see her dad and me riding around on the moped together, but that will never happen<br />
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Maggie left town with her mom, Dawn and dad, John on Friday morning which would leave me nothing to do alllll weekend loooooong. Don't worry, I'm really not that lame and I found things to do. But of course, a weekend is not complete without visiting the barn and the boys. Before Maggie left town I asked if Riley and Cole needed to be ridden, knowing that I had nothing to do until seeing an old high school team mate play against the Louisville Bats that night. Julie was in charge of riding Cole for the weekend, which was a relief in away, I'm still scared I'll break one of the boys, and I definitely don't want to break the new one. Plus, I can always play it off like Riles did something to himself in order not to work. Riley on the other hand was supposed to have the whole weekend off...or so he thought.<br />
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So I decided to get up early on Saturday and take a trip to Midway. First, I had to stop by Kroger to get 3 lbs. of carrots because they were apparently low, and Riley was probably sobbing in his stall at the thought of no more carrots. I could now head towards the barn, it would be my first trip to ride without Maggie around. The only bad part, Riley knows me all too well now. Someone was up in the ring getting a lesson so Riley and I took off on a hack around the farm. Down by the creek Riley and I had discussion number one, for some reason he didn't want to go past the field between the creek and the barn. I've never had that problem with him before, at that point I knew he didn't want to work. We got past that point though and cut up beside the skinny field to head up to the ring. He was actually a good boy in the ring, trotting around well. That was when everyone started to realize I was actually there without Maggie and were very excited that I would actually come out alone. Not to mention I finally look like I fit in around that place now that I have breaches, half-chaps, boots and my sweet new 'Murica helmet.<br />
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I didn't give Riley too much of a workout, but I've learned he has a short attention span some days, especially when I took him for another walk around the farm. Not to mention that of course on the day Maggie isn't there everything happens...down by the creek in the corner of the boys' field a giant branch decided it would snap and fall into the creek right next to us. After that Riley was spooked like crazy and done for the day, and so was I.<br />
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All in all it was an okay day at the barn, but it might be awhile before I'm out there on my own again, I need to get Riley to remember that I won't work him that hard, at least not yet.<br />
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And don't worry Riley and Cole still got plenty of carrots, I wonder if there will ever be a day when I am no longer the Dead-Beat-Dad.<br />
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-JohnTeam Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646135267139653078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511202924305554844.post-3285659790169565562012-07-31T12:02:00.002-07:002012-07-31T12:05:25.481-07:00Cole's New Mission: Self DestructionThe last time I posted, I just heard back about Riley and his EPM. Since then, Riley has been doing pretty well. He still slips a bit, but I feel like it's getting better. His slips have been mild and mostly on the part of the arena where the sand has spread out to the edge and there's no base. (Note to self during my ride last night: for a quick fix, just don't ride in that spot.) Riley even jumped last Tuesday! He was AWESOME, and felt like my old horse, only better. Unlike before, where he generally had one speed of powerful canter (fast) and our riding was a little laissez faire, I was able to collect him while maintaining the power, resulting in a more calculated and enjoyable ride. On Sunday he was very stable on the lunge line, no slipping, and was happy to help John improve his riding at the canter (I'm so proud of them both for how good they looked!). He finishes up his Oraquin paste this week and switches over to a feed-through powder.<br />
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In the meantime, the two boys started going out together last week and were best friends for a few days in the front field. They then got put in the big back field, where I think they're mostly just ok with each other, although not best friends (which I'd imagine has something to do with Cole kicking Riley, and then now Riley always pinning his ears at Cole).<br />
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<i>At first the boys were practically sharing the same blade of grass, but of course by the time I took a photo, they stopped looking quite so adorable.</i></div>
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I am slightly convinced that Riley is playing Bad Big Brother. I think he's convinced Cole that it's not that hard to get a day or two off if you just try to kill yourself. Of course the next best thing to Riley getting the retirement he's always wanted (since those plans aren't working out as well as he dreamed) is to make his little brother look bad and get all the glory. Maybe they shouldn't be turned out together after all...<br />
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The reason Riley ended up jumping on Tuesday in my lesson, instead of Cole doing dressage, was because Cole was off from a nice slice on the inside of his leg, right above the hock. (How he managed to do that is both impressive and a mystery to me.) The vet said it was just barely not deep enough for stitches, but to keep an eye on it and put him on an antibiotic to prevent infection. So Cole won on Tuesday and Wednesday and got those days off. On Thursday, he was sound and the swelling had come down a bit, but he was very disappointed about working. I guess he figured he had to pull out the big guns when I rode him, by which I mean the big bucks and baby leaps. Then on Friday through Sunday, Cole was tucked up and kept having an elevated respiration rate, making me paranoid about him having heat stress or colic. He won again, with Friday off and easier works on Saturday and Sunday. He was very grumpy during his Saturday trot set and once again let loose the big bucks when I lunged him on Sunday. Because his efforts still weren't working, on Sunday he cut his cannon and his stifle, hoping that would at least be worth two more days off. Thankfully he was sound Sunday and Monday, so I'm hoping that if I just keep making him work, he'll finally figure out that it's not worthwhile to kill yourself just to not have to work.<br />
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<i>I'm also hoping that having lame pony torture time will discourage the self destruction.</i></div>
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<i>Cole not only got the swelling above his hock iced, but got a massage from Riley's awesome new back massager. </i></div>
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<i>Still having to do a 15 minute trot Saturday, only at 6:30 AM to avoid the heat. </i></div>
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In other horsey news, I just finished up taking care of Sarah's horses for a little over a week. Bailey, Tristan, and Doodle Bug were all very well-behaved and made it very easy to take care of them. I wish I had a picture of Doodle to flaunt on here because he's this absolutely adorable spotted pony. Sarah's farm is usually pretty quiet, but I've never seen as much wildlife there as I did this past week. I spotted a gorgeous fox, there's a bunny that lives by her horse trailer, and then one day I spotted a doe with two fawns. Two days later, I spotted another female and a male with a small rack.<br />
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<i>I was amazed by the doe and her two fawns- the photo doesn't do it justice, but the babies still had spots!</i></div>
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Tonight I have a lesson with Cole, which will hopefully go well, assuming that he hasn't injured himself further. I told everyone what a jerk he was being (refer to the huge buck comments above) and had a bit of a crisis over buying him, so of course he was perfect last night. I do still think I'll be consulting Dr. Martha, because his personality doesn't seem in line with being as big of a grumpy jerk as he was Thursday-Sunday. All the same, my fingers are crossed for another perfect ride tonight. </div>Team Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646135267139653078noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511202924305554844.post-30296231062915238102012-07-22T17:47:00.000-07:002012-07-22T17:47:00.799-07:00Half Ass School is Back in SessionIt's been awhile since I've had a lesson at the Half Ass School of riding, but this weekend we're picking it back up. Once Riley came back to town it looked like I was finally going to get back to my slow and steady pace of learning all there is to know about riding. I mean come on, I've been Rolex bound for a long time now, but no one ever believes me. In two years I've learned the basics of walking, and halfway learned the basics of trotting. The most cantering I'd done was on Ransom (the star Pony at Heronwood), and he has a big canter. I've trotted over a few cross rails on Ransom, Will and Charlie, even a few on Tig, but that was a failed effort since I'd been off for awhile and I was still very used to Will. It is kind of funny how everyone I rode I just couldn't get used too. My fit was always the best thoroughbred around, Will, or the all-star pony Ransom. There was a little bit of a height difference there, but I didn't care. They both put up with a lot of me not knowing really what I'm doing. Maggie has even dubbed me the Professional of Beginner Breaking a Horse (or pony).<div>
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That got a little long winded.</div>
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So, Riley came back to town. He was lame, but I was excited because my original mount was back and I hadn't ridden in a long time. We were already talking about getting the Half Ass School going again with plans to get me cantering and jumping so I could get a ribbon on Riles too. I got a pink one on Willard, but I need one on both boys. The Cole joined Team Riley, now Maggie and I both had someone to ride and it could be back to the old days of hacking around the farm, Maggie teaching me a little while she worked with Cole too (or Riles and me standing off to the side making fun of them working until it was our turn). But wouldn't you know it, Riley loves to play the lame game, and was already teaching Cole how to play too. There was one weekend where I attempted to canter on Riley, it was a little successful until I learned that even though on my two feet I have great balance, I don't necessarily have the best balance on a horse.</div>
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Which brings me to this weekend.</div>
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The Half Ass School is back in session, and with a little help from Horse Nation and One K.</div>
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<i>Riley thought he was entitled to wear my new helmet too</i></div>
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<i>since he had to suffer through being painted like the</i></div>
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<i>American Flag.</i></div>
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Yesterday wasn't so much of a lesson day as it was a photo shoot so we could show Horse Nation and One K how much Riles loved our Patriotic Helmet prize. Because of the photo shoot I could actually see how bad my form was while trotting, I my feet were too far forward, my elbows weren't bent enough, and as Maggie would put it, I had "puppy dog hands". Of course when we showed up to the barn, everyone else had the same idea too. Maggie and I started to take the long way up to the arena, but I decided to part ways and take a long hack first. With Riley needing to only work in the arena and multiple people riding, I like to stay out of the way since I still don't ride as well as most, I would just feel like I was constantly in the way and get a little rattled. Riles and I had our nice little hack down by the creek and then worked our way back up to the arena to get a little workout in. Tubby McTubberson still needs to do a little work. It's partially my fault because I always give the boys a little too many treats while I'm around. To think, I'm called the dead beat dad.</div>
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<i>Everyone point and laugh at John's horrible form</i></div>
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<i>Riles and I sporting my new America Helmet</i></div>
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<i>My noble steed looks like he really enjoyed</i></div>
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<i>our photo shoot. Little does he know that</i></div>
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<i>I've made him famous in my comic</i></div>
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Everyone was nice and let me have my own little area, which was nice because I could also work on posting on the right lead too. Oh, and I forgot to mention, I used my new whip that Dawn so generously decorated in glittery glory and Mandy I know how you feel about it, just wait until I get you one for Christmas.</div>
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All in all it was a successful learning weekend and very nice to start riding one of the boys again (I still miss you Willard. You made me not have to work hard). Riley doesn't know it, but he has a lot in store for him in the future, we're headed to Rolex! lol, I hope everyone knows I'm full of crap when I say that. So maybe instead we'll strive for the 2016 Olympics.</div>
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-John</div>Team Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646135267139653078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511202924305554844.post-86958020086174866662012-07-18T13:21:00.003-07:002012-07-18T13:21:50.186-07:00Listen to Your HorseToday's life lesson, brought to you courtesy of Riley, is to listen to your horse when something just isn't right.<br />
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For the past few weeks, Riley has been mildly slipping behind. At first, I thought that it was just the grass was so slick, so I rode him in the arena, where he slipped just as often. It was neither predictable nor major, so even though I wasn't terribly worried, I had Dr. Martha perform a physical neurological exam. Riley was slightly positive to some tests, but he'd been off all spring in the hind leg where he showed muscle weakness, and he's never been one to back up, so we weren't all that worried. I had Doug add borium to his shoes later that week with the hopes that the slipping would stop.<br />
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Because it didn't stop, last Wednesday Dr. Martha came out to pull blood in order to run a peptide SAG ELISA test. The test is relatively new, but is much more accurate than the old blood test- Dr. Martha rated it at about 80% accuracy. According to the interwebs, the test "looks for the presence of antibodies specific to three surface antigens (SAG-1, 5, and 6) created by the protozoa." The bolo had to be sent down to Florida, so I had a few days of waiting with my fingers crossed (although we were fairly comfortable that he was ok).<br />
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During her exam of Riley, she recommended that I have Pam out for his back. Pam came on Friday and was hopeful that some of the adjustments would help with the slipping because of the odd location of some of his fixations in his cervical vertebrae. Since last week, his slipping has been getting worse, so unfortunately it was not as simple as a back adjustment.<br />
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The results of the test finally came in last night, and Riley tests abnormal/low positive for SAG-1 and SAG-5. He tests normal for SAG-6. I honestly have to admit that I cried a bit after I listened to Dr. Martha's voicemail. The last thing that Riley deserves is to slowly have his neurologic capacities slip away. But if I want to be frank, the last thing that Will deserved was to die, so the bottom line is that shit happens, even to wonderful, giving animals that don't deserve it. So to be positive, if Riley had to have an EPM diagnosis, there a few good things going for him:<br />
- The peptide SAG ELISA test also indicates which drugs might be most effective. A high SAG-6 is more rare and less treatable, so I'm thankful that his abnormal tests are for the more treatable forms of the protozoa.<br />
- I caught it very early. Right now, Riley maybe tests at a 1 for the physical signs (apparently weight loss is one of the symptoms, and we all know Riley isn't facing that yet!). Dr. Martha said that we have a very good chance of Riley having a full recovery and continuing to event at the BN/N levels.<br />
- The particular drug that we've chosen to treat the EPM with, Oroquin-10, is relatively new, but shows promising rates of efficacy, hopefully without the same rates/risk of relapse associated with Marquis. Plus it's cheaper than Marquis.<br />
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Dr. Martha said she would contact Wickliffe today with the hopes of getting Riley's drugs as soon as possible. I am SO happy that I did the right thing and listened closely to my horse. I've had Riley for 6 years, and even though he was gone for 1 1/2 of those years, I know him well enough to know when something isn't right. I'm very hopeful for Riley's prognosis because not only does he have the best support team ever, but because we caught this early.<br />
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Oh, and as a heads up, expect some very adorable pictures of Riley and Cole tonight or tomorrow. They're new BFFs in the paddock out front- last night I even caught them sharing grass! And perhaps the blog will even get an update about Cole's grid work tonight! And as a closing note, if you're lucky enough to have a pony, you need to give him/her extra hugs and treats- you never know what life is going to throw in the way, and showing your appreciation makes it a lot easier to face.Team Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646135267139653078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511202924305554844.post-17347338113806393192012-07-17T08:29:00.002-07:002012-07-17T08:29:13.882-07:00Project Willie MuffinSorry I haven't written for you guys lately, I got so caught up in my new Horse Pad that I lost complete track of time. I've been playing all these awesome games and checkin out the fillies on Horsebook. I love the My Horse app, I hear mom has one for me. I decided to make, my horse Riley, that way I could make him do all the work for once. I still don't understand why everyone loves this Angry Birds thing, should be more like angry geese, those things were mean whenever I ran into them in the back field.<br />
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I would like to officially welcome Cole to team. It's a shame I can't tell him what life will really be like for him, Riley taking all the limelight while he does all the hard work. And hopefully he'll be a little like me and not give into all the peer pressure of over eating. Riley was looking a little chubby in that patriotic picture. Doesn't he know to stay away from horizontal stripes? They aren't slimming. Mom is already worried Riley is going to start teaching Cole all the tricks of the trade, like how to milk injuries and how to play mind games with Maggie and you being lame. She's even threatened to separate them so they can't talk to each other through the stall walls. She knows that it's no use though, they'll probably just tie some twine between two water buckets and use them to talk. Speaking of Riley looking like an American Flag...why the hell couldn't mom win any of this sweet stuff while I was around? A tredstep makeover (she needed some new stuff since she always bought everything for us and nothing for herself) and a new massage pad. I would have loved to you that thing. Sitting in the stall with that and my voodoo hat on would have been like living in a spa. And to top it all off John won that kick-ass helmet. I'm really sad he'll never get to ride me with it, we would have looked soooo cool.<br />
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In case everyone hasn't heard yet, I'm working in the Willie Muffin factory now. Yes we produce them up here, with treats that good, they couldn't make them on earth. I was hired on as Head Taste Tester and New Flavor Creator. Cole is so picky right now with what he likes, I've gotta come up with new flavors; I mean what kind of horse doesn't like carrots?! What a weirdo, those are the best treats, not the sugar filled ones or the crappy Tractor Supply cookies. And it's a good thing Riley does work here though, he would probably get fired the first day for sneaking too many treats. I can just see him waiting at the end of the conveyor belt eatin' them before they can fall into the box. I've noticed that Cole has yet to get his peppermint hangin' ball, apparently Riles is keepin his mouth shut so Cole doesn't know whats up. That way he can reap all the benefits and doesn't have to share.<br />
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I've been thinking of ways to still mess with Riley. I think I might accidentally drop some peppermints and carrots from the sky over the back field and see how he reacts, hopefully John and Maggie will think he's nuts when he tells them it's raining treats.<br />
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Well, I gotta head to work now, I'm working on a new flavor today, maybe some sort of bourbon ball flavored muffin. Its also getting so hot in the summers that I'm trying to get them to look into some sort of ice cream treat. Don't tell Riles though, he'll go on the disabled list just to get more treats.<br />
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-WillTeam Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646135267139653078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511202924305554844.post-8906272149978693252012-07-10T19:38:00.001-07:002012-07-10T19:38:18.428-07:00Cole's First Lesson!It looks like I complained so much yesterday that today was great. I was one of two for sound ponies, which is much better than zero of two. And since Cole was sound, and I'd been meaning to get some help with him, and Julie was around/not busy, we had our first official lesson.<br />
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Cole was AMAZING. Both of us have been out of the game for a while, so we both thought the lesson was pretty hard work. But other than that, Cole was a pretty willing guy and was happy to work. There were a few baby bucks, and one or two times that he kicked out, but we all know I secretly love broncos, and I certainly don't remember Riley being this easy when he was green. (Riley has thankfully grown up, and is a pleasure to ride on the flat now- but he did used to be a nightmare!) Cole thought that bending left, and especially cantering and bending left at the same time were very hard, but he still gave it a try if I insisted that he do it. When he did what I asked and I rode correctly, he was a dream to ride (and moves like a big time horse!). Overall, he was a pleasure to ride :).<br />
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<i>A very angry Riley.</i></div>
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As for Riley, he got the day off because the vet is coming tomorrow and I didn't want to aggravate anything if his back is bugging him as much as he said it was last night. He did however get dressed back up in his muzzle (which he had tried to ditch in the field last night), plus a halter over top to try and make it a little harder to undress himself. He's still whining miserably about it all, coughing every minute to try and guilt me into taking it off. Little does he know that if he keeps this whining up, it just means he'll be getting a "<a href="http://www.chicksaddlery.com/page/CDS/PROD/MZ9661">Easy Breathe Muzzle</a>," and not complete freedom. Welcome to fat camp, Riley. I'm sure John's hiding carrots and peppermints in the hollowed out fence posts, but I'm doing my best since you think that <strike>Perkisizing</strike> exercising is overrated.Team Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646135267139653078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511202924305554844.post-15795189332265361372012-07-09T19:51:00.000-07:002012-07-09T20:04:02.916-07:00More Ups and DownsEveryone who's into horses knows that we don't just love them for the joy they give us. We love them just as much for the heartbreak, because it makes the joy that much more uplifting. Like life, owning horses means dealing with the ups just as gracefully as we do the downs.<br />
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Lately it feels like I've been on a roller coaster. After such a crummy spring on the horse front, I was really hoping for an amazing summer- buying a new horse, having Riley back home, and who knows what else. If a couple blue ribbons found their way into my lap along the way, I certainly would not be disappointed.</div>
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Of course, horses being horses, this is not what's happened. Dealing with Riley is like being on one of those pirate ship rides- initially it looks fun, but after a month and a half of going baaack and fooortth, I think I'm about ready to puke. The little guy (yes, I know he's 16 hands- but shorter than Will and Cole, and with the personality of a little 12 year old boy) keeps playing sound pony, only to decide something else is wrong (because we all know how much fun vacation is). His hot nail healed, so a pulled muscle sounded fun. His pulled muscle was alright, so mysterious ankle seemed intriguing. Mysterious ankle seems to work like healthy ankle again, so now he's trying to scare the poop out of me by slipping all the time. </div>
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<i>Riley thinks dressage is dumb.</i></div>
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But eternally hopeful for one of those ups, I decided that 2-3 weeks of sound Riley merited some jumping. I think if we do any more dressage without a break, we will both die of boredom. So I went about exploring the lesser used parts of my bridle collection. It was with a heavy heart that I assembled his jumping outfit, moving bits and reins around and unearthing the running martingale. Most days I feel ready to move on- I even gave Cole Will's old lead rope and have been contemplating giving Riley Will's gray fly mask since he's slowly destroying his own- but today I wasn't ready for Riley to wear some of the gear that Will was wearing when he died. The reins, my only pair with stops, were done up on his clean bridle, as if waiting for him to come back and wear it, while the martingale had been hidden on the back of the rack to forget. I've been trying to tackle cleaning some of Will's old things, to make the memories a bit more dull, but the martingale has yet escaped. Rational me said it was silly to be upset- the martingale had Riley's name on it after all, and the reins are short and more suited to Riley's tiny neck. In the end, though, emotional me won over rational me, and I was suddenly more bummed about jumping than anyone in their right mind ought to be. </div>
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I tried to cheer myself up and took Riley up to the ring for some jumping. I set a warmup fence with a rail on either side. I can't remember ever doing this exercise with Riley before, but I thought he could benefit. When I raised it to a vertical and rolled the rails to 9', he got extraordinarily upset on landing. Thinking that he could just be angry about the landing rail, I took it out. Still angry. I tried two other small verticals, just to be sure- definitely still angry. </div>
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So now Riley has a slipping issue AND his back is bugging him again. The hollow-and-buck-and-stop-all-at-once screams classic Riley's Back Hurts. </div>
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Meanwhile, my brand new horse is hopefully back in one piece. Cole got his shoe and pad put back on today. I thought about telling him that he's going to wear his Air Jordans, and he damn well better like them, or no more cheap Tractor Supply cookies. But being the softie I am, I just gave him a cookie instead of a lecture. It's not like the horses listen to me anyways. </div>
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So to wrap it all up, and not feel like a total downer (although that's definitely what today feels like), on the bright side:</div>
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- Cole is hopefully sound again, and ready to take over as work horse for Team Riley<br />
- Riley is absolutely hilarious in his grazing muzzle, which I broke down and put on him today, because his belly just keeps getting bigger and bigger</div>
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- I already have an appointment with Dr. Martha on Wednesday to pull blood for an EPM test, so it won't be difficult to add a back-check to the list</div>
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- Riley's back will be very happy to test out the new Equilibrium Massage Therapy Pad that he won because he truly is one of the best horses ever, even if he thinks early retirement sounds fun</div>
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- John has a swanky new helmet that Riley helped him win (and Cole is supposedly beginner friendly)</div>
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- I'm so, so lucky to have two horses that are as happy as I think mine are, and friends and family that make the downs not seem so bad</div>
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Oh, and even if I do have all those things to be optimistic about, I sure think I'm due a little karmic up, like maybe a sound Cole who can make it to a mini-trial at the end of this month. </div>Team Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646135267139653078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511202924305554844.post-23458786226555016862012-07-05T19:11:00.001-07:002012-07-05T19:11:50.056-07:00Such a Sucker...So I'm pretty sure that anyone who knows me knows I'm a HUGE sucker when it comes to my horses. Even though it's taken me a long time to figure out just how tightly wrapped around their little hooves I am, Cole didn't take long to catch onto the game. In fact, less than a week after his homecoming, he'd already realized that I'll pretty much do anything for my horses.<br />
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On Thursday, I was very excited to have Doug (our farrier) out to put some sweet new kicks on Cole. He got the Air Jordans of the horse world- front shoes with pour-in-pads because he needed a little extra sole on one of his front feet.<br />
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<i>New shoes and new bell boots!</i></div>
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<i>Also a new fly mask!</i></div>
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Well, it turns out that Cole doesn't like Air Jordans much. I think he's much more of a basic Converse All Star guy- by Saturday he was pathetically lame, and by Monday we had pulled his left front shoe off. The awkward death-smelling grey goo in his hoof pack today also hints that he might of popped an abcess on top of having a hot nail, but either way, he was pretty upset about his swanky new shoes.<br />
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In the time between having the vet out on Saturday and the farrier coming on Monday, I ended up icing his feet both Saturday and Sunday. While it seems normal to me to ice whatever's hot, my dad walked in on Sunday and couldn't get over how silly it was that Cole was getting both his front feet soaked in buckets of ice. (As a side note, and an extra reason why I'm a sucker- my dad was at the barn to help me resurface/redo the mats in Cole's stall.)<br />
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I don't see it when I look in the mirror, but the horses sure seem to think I have sucker boldly written across my forehead. And, well, I really can't disagree. On the bright side, Cole seemed much happier and sounder today, and Riley pretended to be a very sound, wonderful dressage pony. Tomorrow we'll have to see if Riley told Cole about the trick where you pretend to be sound one day and lame the next, but hopefully he doesn't like Cole enough yet to share his best secrets.Team Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646135267139653078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511202924305554844.post-57916750292209630232012-06-24T19:03:00.002-07:002012-06-25T04:48:11.611-07:00Welcome Home, Cole!Two weeks ago, I was completely frustrated with local horse shopping and was planning a trip to Ohio to look at horses. I had a list of about 7 horses, 2 of which looked especially promising. While searching, I had seen an ad on equine.com for a big bay Thoroughbred gelding in Lexington and figured I'd give the owner a call. He was so close that even if I didn't like him, the trip wouldn't be much of a waste.<br />
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As it turned out, I <i>really</i> liked him. He was tall, dark, and handsome. I was a bit worried about just how BIG he was, but Julie and Mandy both assured me that substance is good, even in a potential upper level horse. I took him to Masterson three days after our first meeting and he was fabulous. It was only his second "field trip", but he took it all in stride. He was very pumped up at first, assuring me that he was indeed hot enough. We did the big questions- ditch, bank, and water, and he didn't bat an eye. He actually got better the more he was challenged. That sealed the deal and I called Dr. Martha to leave a message.</div>
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Super pumped-up pony.</div>
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No horse eating ditch monsters here!</div>
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Calming down by the end of the ride.</div>
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Dr. Martha is a super-awesome vet with a busy schedule and limited appointment times, so it took until Wednesday to get her out for a pre-purchase. He flexed well enough that we went to take the x-rays, but as soon as we got all set up, the x-ray machine wouldn't fire. With some creative appointment switching, we re-scheduled for Thursday. Thankfully the x-ray machine must of just been in a bad mood on Wednesday, because the next day it worked perfectly. With each view we took, Dr. Martha kept commenting on how clean each x-ray was for how big he is. Unfortunately we did find a bone chip in his front left fetlock, but he had flexed sound on it, so Dr. Martha didn't think it would be a big deal. Armed with Dr. Martha's professional opinion, I made the decision to purchase Cole, but to invest in surgery to remove the bone chip. She said that although there's a risk each time a horse goes for surgery, the arthroscopic surgery to remove a small bone chip was relatively non-invasive and had a great prognosis. In all it should take Cole about 2 months to get back to regular work, but I'll be happy to have the bone chip gone before it has a chance to become a problem. </div>
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Yesterday I was so thrilled to pick Cole up. He settled in much quicker than I anticipated, mostly due to how delicious he thinks Julie's hay is. I haven't gotten a chance to ride him yet, but tomorrow I plan on changing that and showing him around the farm. (I can't wait!)</div>
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Onto the trailer...</div>
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The hay net on the other side, despite being filled with the exact same hay, was apparently much tastier than the hay in front of his face. </div>
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Into the barn...</div>
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All settled in!</div>
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So, Team Riley fans, meet Cole!:</div>
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Cole is a 5 year old Thoroughbred gelding, registered with the Jockey Club as Cole's Connection. Cole stands at about 17.1 hands. His sire is The Cliff's Edge and his dam is Irish Ides, by Proud Irish. He raced as a 3 and 4 year old, but didn't have much luck against the smaller horses after breaking his maiden at Turfway. Cole raced in mostly claimers for a total of 9 races and about $7000 in winnings. His last race was in August of 2011, before his previous mother bought him as a dressage horse. After a winter off, his dressage career was progressing well, and near the end of May, he was officially listed for sale. </div>
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As a side note, my mother bought me a bottle of wine last week- Fourteen Hands Hot to Trot. She told me I couldn't open it until we had a new horse, and thankfully I didn't have to wait too long. We popped it open last night to celebrate!</div>
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<br /></div>Team Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646135267139653078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511202924305554844.post-64901921792902705962012-06-17T13:18:00.003-07:002012-06-17T13:18:49.097-07:00The Half Ass School of RidingAs many of you may know, and a few may not know, I am in what we like to call the Half Ass School of Riding. Let me explain, about two years ago, I finally got my chance to ride a horse. After 24 years of living in Kentucky, I finally don't have to acknowledge the "sin" of being a true Kentuckian and never having ridden a horse. I began on the best, and we use that term lightly at times, lesson horse we could find, Riley (the poster child of Team Riley Eventing). He was perfect; lazy when he wanted to be and not really that spooky. The only thing he really didn't like was the large pile of wood along the trail. Apparently he has heard that there was a giant monster living in it.<br />
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Thus began the Half Ass School of Riding. My very patient (which is odd to say) teacher: Maggie<br />
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I started out just hacking along, learning the reins, how to turn, keep my heels down, keep my heels down, oh and if I forgot KEEP YOUR HEELS DOWN! Just recently I got a compliment on how I keep my heels down by Julie, at least I've finally learned something.<br />
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It was a very slow going process, ask me to play any sport involving a ball or me not being in control of a large animal, I'm pretty much golden. It also didn't help that after that summer I moved back to Louisville for work and only saw the Maggie and the boys on the weekend. I know Riley loved it. It meant that he didn't have to work hard that day and that he got twice the treats. Then came that fateful day when Riley got leased. I didn't have my lesson pony anymore and the way everyone talked about Will, I didn't know if I was going to get to ride him.<br />
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This is when the Half Ass School got fun. The first day I got to ride Willard the whole barn was stunned. Every person had the same response when they heard I was getting ready to, "Maggie don't hurt John, we really like John." What they didn't know was that Will was going to be on his best behavior for me. He was great, he knew I was on him. The only problem sometimes was finding a second horse so Maggie and I could hack together, she still didn't trust Willard enough to let me hack on my own yet. My teacher also had an alternate motive too. I fell into the eventing world head first when I met Maggie and wanted to learn more.<br />
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It was a little bit of a crash course at the beginning, especially when I was put on the lung line to learn how to post at the trot. Thats when Maggie got to have a little fun and push the limits: "You wanna canter now?" Really? well why not. And that was my first and only fall off of Willard, well more of a I'm falling so I'm going to tuck and role.<br />
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Ransom, the local pony on the block, did his fair share of putting up with me. He let me trot on him, do a little beginner cantering, and even some jumping. Later on after the fact I learned that I actually took Ransom on one of his first cross country schooling days, even over his first ditch.<br />
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After consistently riding Ransom I got to try my shot at trotting Will again. They best part was stunning Maggie when I just picked up the trot, I even threw in a flying lead change for the fun of it. Actually that was Willard, trying to scare the crap outta me. Low and behold, the Half Ass School was paying off. I felt like I finally conquered Will. I could talk days about Willard, I still miss him whenever I ride another horse, I got so used to his quirks.<br />
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The Half Assed School likes to test the waters a little too. I think Maggie likes see what I can handle. I even got to jump Will, that will forever be one of my favorite memories, it wasn't pretty, but I made it. That getting a Pink Ribbon at Snowbird.<br />
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Now that Riley is back I've started to learn more again. Like Maggie, I've learned to like big thoroughbreds. Two years later I'm finally going to learn how to balance and canter well.<br />
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There's a reason it's called the Half Ass School of Riding, Its slow and steady and a little laid back, but I enjoy it, I love riding.<br />
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-JohnTeam Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646135267139653078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511202924305554844.post-86254007476125024822012-06-07T18:53:00.003-07:002012-06-07T18:53:53.228-07:00All Quiet on the Pony-Shopping FrontThe past few weeks have been going by with nothing too exciting on the pony-shopping front.<br />
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I looked at what felt like a million horses at Elaine Schott's farm in Versailles a few weeks back. They were lovely horses, but they just weren't what I'm looking for. On Monday, I travelled north to the Hoosier state to look at 5 off the track guys (and gal). One freshly retired gelding was pretty nice, but didn't knock my socks off when I hopped on. I had a blast on the mare, but she's not as leggy as I'd like. She made me re-evaluate and perhaps start thinking that even 16 hands is too short, so now I'm really thinking 16.2 or taller. For every 10 horses for sale, I think I can find 1 or 2 that fit what I want, but nothing has really clicked. I keep telling myself I'll know it when I feel it, but some days I wonder about that (and really, really hope it's true).<br />
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One of the guys I saw Monday</div>
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They had babies at one of the farms!</div>
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In the meantime, I fell in love with the ad for a CANTER horse in Ohio. I was dying to go look at him because everything about him sounded wonderful (and it didn't hurt that he was just as tall, dark, and drop-dead-handsome as Will). It turns out that he has osselets in his ankle and can't jump, so that was a huge bummer. But the contact person was very friendly and helpful and was happy to give me some good leads.<br />
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So now my focus turns to the Buckeye state, where I'm planning on going in 2 weeks to look at a line-up of horses. I feel like there's a time-bomb ticking underneath me to make a decision on my #1 horse, but I just have to have something nice to compare him to- I don't want to be backed into a corner for fear of losing out, and then be sorely disappointed when he's not everything I want and more.<br />
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I've also been approved for adoption at the Secretariat Center, so I'm going to make an appointment soon to check out a filly they have. I'm crossing my fingers that one goes well, since when I thought she was amazing when I saw her at Rolex. My CANTER MI adoption is pending, but there's a horse that they just got in who sounds like someone I'd enjoy.<br />
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In other news, little Riley has been plugging along. It seems as though he can't decide when, or if, his extended vacation should end. He was sound right before Maydaze and going to watch all the horses really made me hopeful. I started making plans in my head for what we'd do once he got going again. He saw the chiropractor on Memorial Day and was going to be scheduled for one last lameness exam this week to get the go-ahead for full work. So of course when I tried to ride him on Tuesday, he was terribly lame. This time the vet thinks it's just a strained muscle, so with all luck that's it (and we've finally gotten to the bottom of all his problems). We had a little talk about one more big vet bill and he can have a year or two off if he'd like, and I think that might of knocked some sense into him because he's been sound all this week.<br />
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Some days I think Riley gets a kick out of making me worried. His leg decided to swell up, so after I wrapped it, John and I decided to sign his "cast". </div>Team Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646135267139653078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-511202924305554844.post-28638774707264018102012-05-30T19:59:00.002-07:002012-05-30T20:26:27.641-07:00Back Field FakeI walked out to the back field on Monday to grab Ransom so that I could ride him a little. When I brought him up I found this stuffed in his muzzle. Apparently this is how the backfield gets their beer.<br />
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- JohnTeam Rileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646135267139653078noreply@blogger.com0