Introducing Dee!

The red mare remains for sale and unfortunately the market here is just flooded with good horses and very few buyers :(  She's going to stay with the trainer for one more month and if she hasn't sold by the end of September I will bring her home.

This is because my board bills are now doubled and I need to reduce costs where I can.  My board has doubled because I have a new partner-in-crime (ok, she's more like my babysitter)!

I had no intentions of looking for a new horse until the red mare sold since I am not made of money.  I really needed her to sell to finance my new purchase.  Well the universe intervened and the perfect horse came up, at a price that I could swing.  Who am I to dispute the universe's wishes :)

My coach was mentioning I needed a new mount to some of her customers and they told her about this 15.2 mare that a girl was selling because the mare was not taking well to retirement.  Turns out Sandra Donnelly told my coach about this horse a couple of years ago, telling her she was a very cool horse and to snap her up.  Well because she is not a traditional event breed my coach didn't even consider her.  She knows I'm not overly concerned with bloodlines or age, all I wanted was a horse that jumped all the jumps so this time she passed along the info.

I drove a couple hours to try the mare out on a Saturday.  Turns out it was the first time she had been ridden in 2 months.  I had a really great ride and made plans to bring my coach back the next day.  Her owner suggested I bring my trailer so if it went well I could take her home for a trial (since I was not prepared to purchase something that I had not taken cross country schooling).

Well my coaches exact words were "Put her in the trailer".  So we took her for a week trial.  I took her XC schooling on the Wednesday and she was a complete rockstar!  She took me to every single fence.  Even the giant Pre-Training bench that I was completely terrified of.  While we were packing up to go, everyone told me I wasn't allowed to pass her up so I had a phone call to make.

Sure we've only jumped 10 fences together, let's school the Pre-Training Coop

So I'd like to introduce my new leading lady, Dee (affectionately known as Best Pony).  She's a 17yo, 15.2 Saddebred Pinto who has shown at Training and schooled Prelim.  Dressage is going to be a challenge but if I do my job and get her to the fence she will do hers and get us over it. She's exactly what I need to rebuild the confidence I've lost riding the red mare.

Sullivan's First Road Trip

I've had a ton of things happen I need to catch up on.

Sullivan is officially inspected and registered RPSI.  We took him, Jasper, their mamas and Ritchie down to Okotoks for their inspection.  I  hauled the mare and foal pairs (I LOVE MY TRAILER!) and Shimmer-E followed in her rig with the stallion.

Considering the boys aren't halter broke and neither mare has been on a trailer in years it went surprisingly well.  Mares loaded like champs and we basically just lifted the boys in.  All 4 hauled and unloaded beautifully.

Fresh off our first trailer ride (which was 5 hours)

We got everyone settled in and ran into town to have dinner with my friend DM.  It was lovely to see her and the food was awesome.  The menu had 7(!!) pages of hamburgers.  Talk about hard to choose.

The weather forecast was calling for light snow but we weren't too concerned, in the first week of September it is very unusual for the temps to be low enough to be concerned about ice.  Well Mother Nature apparently likes to mix things up, just for shits and giggles.

The driveway at the barn.  The poor trees were crippled by the weight of leaves and snow.

We woke up to well over 8 inches of heavy, wet snow, no power and terrible roads.  Thankfully I had my winter riding boots and a scarf with me, but we definitely were not prepared for winter conditions.  The trip to the barn took twice as long as the evening before and once we got there we were slogging through over a foot of the white stuff.  Poor horses (who had overnighted in big beautiful paddocks) were wet and shivering.  There was also no power at the barn, which meant no heat or power doors.  Thankfully they had a small generator that powered the lights.


The inspection was a little smaller than planned, due to the poor road conditions, but went very well. Sullivan scored a Silver Premium!  I'm very happy with my little half Arab colt.  I think if he had been a little older (and warmer) he likely could have even scored better but he was still within striking distance of the top scoring colt.

Silver Premium

The plan was to brand him but since he was so wet we had to microchip instead.  He can be branded next year if I want to take him back.  I'm not sure what I'll do.  I think I will re-assess when it's closer since it's a long way to go (5 hours).

I had to leave as soon as we were done because I couldn't take anymore time off work. Both colts jumped right in the trailer.  Here's hoping this is a life-long skill. I checked the road reports and it was looking like it was completely fine after the first 45 min.  Thankfully the plows had been out, so once I was off the back roads it was smooth sailing.  I made it home, to where there was no snow, in decent time and proceeded to go school XC in a T-Shirt.  Gotta love Alberta weather.

Finally Mobile

In August I finally managed to complete a lifelong goal.  I purchased my own trailer!!! It is the best thing I've done in a long time.  The freedom it gives me is amazing.  No more making sure someone else wants to go to the same show, no more worrying about borrowing a trailer in emergencies.

Don't get me wrong, I have awesome friends who have been extremely kind and generous lending me their trailers but it was past time to buy my own. I found one I really liked for a steal of a deal and I was off to the middle of nowhere Saskatchewan to go pick it up.  

I bought a 2002 4H Featherlite.  It is exactly what I wanted, dressing room (where I put a mattress) has a stud wall, drop down windows and escape door.  I've slept in it a few times already and it is just so nice not to be sleeping in the back of the trailer.

The Purple Lemon meets her new road trip partner.

Tough Decisions

For months now, almost everyone in my life has been after me to sell the mare.  I have felt that I wanted to keep at it.  I kept at it.  I sent her for training. I didn't want to quit, give up or fail.  A conversation with a casual acquaintance changed everything.

Sometimes it goes well

Selling the mare is not giving up.  It's not quitting.  And it sure doesn't make me a failure.  The conversation made me realize one very important truth: I'm too important to get hurt. At this point I don't feel safe jumping the mare, especially on XC.  Even when everything is going great I'm always nervous and slightly terrified.

That may sound narcissistic and egotistical but I truly believe that I need to put my safety first.  I've already suffered one major and life-changing injury due to a fall and another one is in the cards if I keep falling off. If I fall off on XC there is a greater possibility that I will get seriously injured or worse.

The trainer has done a fabulous job with the mare but it comes down to confidence.  Both the mare and I require a partner who can lend us confidence.  This deficit of confidence is contributing to the downward spiral that is our partnership.  It's time for the mare to find a partner who can give her the confidence to succeed and it's time for me to find the same, I think we will both be happier.

If I only wanted to do dressage and trail riding I would keep her in a heartbeat.  I love this horse.  I love riding her, but I want to event and for the two of us, this is not going to happen.

So we decided that I would not bring her home.  She is with the trainer to be sold.  It breaks my heart to sell her because I look at her sale ad and video and think, "I'd buy that horse."

I am confident this is the right decision for both of us but it's still hard and part of me hopes she sells fast so that I can move onto the next chapter.

Our happy place

Where The Red Mare and I Part Ways, In More Than One Way

So my last post about the mare saw me falling off when she reared and went down.  After that the mare and I hauled down to Alborak to clinic with Sandra Donnelly.  I hoped that all would go well but I also really hoped that the mare would show her obstinate side so that I could get some help.

Well horses being horses, the mare was a complete rockstar.  The only run-out we had was more pilot error than anything.  On the morning of the second day I also showed the mare in an Extreme Cowboy event, mostly because my mom was doing it and the mare's done it before so why not.  She warmed up well and we were the first ride of the day.  When I went in and asked her to pick up a canter she started bucking.  And I mean bucking, not just hopping around.  My rein snapped and I bailed off.  Turns out, in Extreme Cowboy, you have 60 seconds to catch and remount if you want to continue.  I got back on the mare and managed to complete the course without an issue.  I've never seen her buck before or since so I'm not sure what happened but I quickly loaded up and was off to have a great second day to my clinic.

The mare got a mini vacation at my moms horse before we did the Cochrane HT.  We had a great weekend.  We had two XC refusals but we jumped the ditch and finished on a number!  Things were really looking up.

It's the last fence.  Can you tell I was pleased with her?

The next weekend was the Sidesaddle Clinic at the BarU (which is a whole post on it's own).  The mare was a delight the whole weekend, even jumping aside!

So much fun!!!

And then there was Thompson Country HT.  What a weekend.  I thought dressage on Friday went pretty well but I felt I was tense and our corners definitely lacked polish.  Turns out the judge disagreed.  We were sitting in 1st out of a very competitive division of 30+!!!!

On Saturday we were having a good warm up for XC but it was excessively hot and they were running behind so we just chilled out for a bit.  When we were only a few riders out my coach had me school the vertical and then come to the oxer.  The vertical rode perfectly but the mare stalled out in front of the oxer and then tried to pop over it but just crashed through it.  I popped off, mostly landing on my feet.  After getting cleared by the paramedic I got back on, schooled the vertical a few times and re-approached the oxer.  The mare slid to a stop and spun out left (witness' said it was a very dirty stop) and, you guessed it, I came off again. I landed on my feet again though.  So the ground jury eliminated me after getting cleared by the paramedic.  I didn't even know you could be eliminated in warmup :(


To say I was disappointing would be an understatement.  I had reached the end of my rope.  Between the rearing, the bucking and the stopping I was getting scared and discouraged.  I'm a good rider but I also have a physical limitation with my weak ankle that also compromises my balance.  After the rearing incident I had contacted a trainer friend of mine to inquire about putting some training on the mare.  We had decided that she would head down in August since the trainer would be gone for 10 days to go to Rebecca Farm.  She was at the event and offered to take the mare a few weeks early as she had room on her trailer.  So I loaded the mare into her trailer and wished her luck.

When she is good, she is so good!

All The Cuteness!!

So I have become quite apathetic about blogging due to continued issues with the red mare.  At some point I will update on her but today I'd rather focus on the happy.  So without further ado I introduce to you Le Premieur SE (Sullivan), a 2014 RPSI colt out of La Bamba SE (Ritchie)

About 4 hours old!

 Sullivan is one of the first foals from Shimmer-E's lovely 4 year old stallion out of an Arab mare.  I'm very excited to announce he's all mine!  I was there shortly after his birth and signed the papers then and there.

He's going to the RPSI inspection on Sept 10th and there he will be fully branded.  He will also be dual registered half Arab.  I'm not sure I have any interest in showing on the Arab circuit but you can win blankets of roses so I'm not ruling it out yet!

My hopes are that he will prove to have the same attitude and work ethic of his sire.  The talent would be awesome as well!  For now he's just going to have to get used to being loved (read: pestered).

3 weeks old

3 weeks old

All the sleepies.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr.Hyde

So before my horse went on a week's vacation at my mother's I wanted to get out and school Beaumont x-country one more time. So I convinced my coach that our Wednesday night lesson should be at Beaumont.

Isabel and Martini showing us how it's done, after the incident.

The mare started out really well.  We jumped the Pre-Entry and Entry parts of the train and then our coach had us jump the Pre-Training coop in the train.  Mare sailed over it like it was NBD.  We moved over to the new complex and did the Entry line a few times before she had us do the Pre-Training bench.  I will admit that the bench freaked me out a little so I let the mare duck out the first time.  But the second time I actually rode it and she just popped right over it.

The pipeyard also went superbly until we went for the Pre-Training coop with two half circles cut into the bottom.  I got the first actual fear response from the mare.  About 12 strides out she got a good look at it and started snorting and refused to move forward.  I got her going and she slammed on the brakes in front of the fence.  I made her walk up to it, she sniffed it and then we were good to go.  I planned to trot on the reapproach but the mare picked up a canter 4 strides out and carried me right to the fence.  The other girls also all had refusals at that fence, on much more experienced horses.

We also jumped the airplane on the first try.  Considering last time this jump brought out a rear-and-spin I considered it a vast improvement.

The jump she would not jump...

Then we moved onto the farmyard with the black and red feeder that caused us grief at the event.  Let's just say it caused us more grief.  After 2 run-outs my coach told me to hold onto the right side of her face and keep her moving no matter what.  What comes next is slightly fuzzy but the mare went to go left, I blocked the run-out and she reared straight up, cracking me in the nose.  She then went over to the right.  I think she tried to spin left but I had a hold of the right rein and she lost her balance because everyone says she just kind of crumpled.  Descriptions vary but I think she landed on my bad ankle and I cracked my head hard enough that I needed a new helmet.

Too bad Tipperary doesn't have a frequent buyers card.  This is my third helmet in the past 18 months.

I got back on and rode for another 20 minutes, schooling banks, the ditch and the water all without issue but it was decided that I shouldn't try the feeder again that day.

This day was the straw that broke the camels back.  I don't know how to deal with the mare and her tendency to flip a switch and turn into Mr.Hyde.   The fence is not big, it's not even that scary but once she got it in her head that she didn't want to jump it I was unable to convince her that that is an unacceptable answer.

It's time for me to get some more help than my coach can provide.  The mare is going for training for the month of August.  We will see how that goes and go from there.  It's disheartening to have to send her but something has to give, and I would prefer it not to be my body.

Blogger Hates Me....July Goals

There has been a ton that has happened in the past few weeks.  I had a fight with Blogger in which I wrote a big long post and it disappeared.  This frustrated me so much I'm having a hard time finding the motivation to start over.  So I'll start with a goals recap and hopefully my confidence in Blogger will be bolstered.

June Goals Recap

-Ride sidesaddle at least twice a week Only sorta happened, but I did actively practice
-No stirrup work (or bareback) for at least 45 min a week - Total Fail.  I think all month was only 45 min
-At least one no pressure ride Went for a couple of simple low key hacks.
-Complete an event with a number, even if it's K2 high (I've got two chances for this one) Beaumont was an E but Cochrane was a number! (and yes, it was crazy high)
-A jumping lesson (or show) without a single run-out or stop Lesson with Sam, and a 2 day clinic with Sandra Donnelly all with no-runouts
-DON'T FALL OFF - Another major fail.  Two falls in one week :(
-Make a concentrated effort to get fitter (so I don't run out of steam before the end of my course) - Not even a little bit.

July Goals

-No stirrup work or bareback at least once a week (I'm going to start small)
-Focus on dressage and getting more swing in her back and less tension in her neck
-Work on dragging objects
-Work out a financial and time plan for sending the mare for training in August
-DON'T FALL OFF
-Look into alternative therapies for my ankle

Lesson Time

For the first time in weeks it did not rain on Wednesday so I was finally able to have a jumping lesson.

I have been riding the mare in a hackamore at home lately so I threw that on so the coach could see it in action.  The consensus?  We both like her in it but we both really like how it forces me to use my legs an core.

The whole lesson focused on keeping her slow.  Very slow.  When she gets fast she takes one step to the side and we are already blowing past the fence.  There was a two stride set up and I could keep her nice and compressed until after the first fence, at which point she takes off.  So we worked at stopping in the middle.  The goal was to stop with enough room to trot the next fence.  I was struggling to get the stop but as soon as my coach said "You were a western rider, sit your butt in the saddle and make her stop" it clicked.  I was able to get the stop and we had one trot stride to the fence.

We then put it into a course and I rode like I was going to stop but then asked her to keep going.  It resulted in us getting 3 strides in the 2 but at least I was in control!

So Shiny!

There were lots of tight turns that really forced me to turn with my body and legs since if I tried with my hands the mare shot her head up into the air and didn't even try and turn.  The hackamore really highlights my shortcomings.

Overall it was a productive ride but it sure wasn't easy.  My abs hurt by the time we were done, which I guess actually is a good thing.

DogDog is liking being a barn dog!

Beaumont HT - Sunday

Since I didn't ride until later in the day on Sunday I got to sleep in again!  I got up and went and walked my x-country course once more and watched the prelim riders go before going to pick up the mare.  It was nice and relaxed morning.  The mare is completely content to stand at the trailer by herself all day.  I have to say that it is really nice!

I love my truck.  And thanks to Isabel for letting me use her trailer

We got prepped and hopped up on to warm up.  We did a ton of transitions in our flat warm up in an effort to remind her that I pick the speed.  Our over fences warm up had a few bobbles.  We had a couple of run-outs at the oxer and she tried to run-out when we took the vertical at an angle but I was able to channel her over it, at the angle I asked for.

We sure look the part...

In the start box I was very nervous again but at least this time I didn't feel like I was going to vomit.  We had planned to trot the first fence to start on a good note and it turned out to be the right choice.  She was a little wiggly but I growled, spanked her and she decided jumping was a good idea.  A short "S" shaped canter to the next fence (which was the one that saw me fall off at the derby) and she popped over no problem.  We had a fairly long canter before we doubled back to Fence 3.  This was the fence with the Pre-Training fence in the line.  The plan was to keep as close to the fence to get a straight line.  This backfired slightly.  She spooked hard at the fence and I twisted my bad ankle.  We then had a run-out at the jump.  I represented and had yet another run-out.  This was the first time she didn't jump on the represent.  I got her over it on the third time and the official photographer got a fabulous shot of us over it.

I trotted into Fence 4 to get her mind back in the game and she responded well.  We then cantered up and over the little hill to the coop at 5 and she flowed right over it.  We cantered into the water and to the Pheasant Feeder at 6.  We picked up yet another run-out :(  No problem on the second time and the train that was next rode beautifully.   Fence 9 was the headstones and unfortunately we picked up our 4th run-out, effectively eliminating us.  I jumped her over it and started the long walk to the vet.

I was made to dismount by Control (via jump judge) and walk on foot.  Unfortunately my ankle was incredibly bad and I could hardly hobble.  It took me 10 minutes to get to the vet.  Thankfully Isabel met me there and walked the mare back and I was able to hitch a ride on a quad to my rig.

Isabel then hooked up her truck to the trailer and took the mare home so that I could go home and ice my ankle.  Turns out I sprained it.  It was bruising by the time I got home.  I guess it's time to look into a brace that will actually fit in my tall boot.

It was a very disappointing end to the weekend but I'm choosing to focus on a fabulous round on Saturday.  We are heading back out next Wednesday to school and then I'm off to Cochrane for a clinic with Sandra Donnelly.  We will get this figured out.

Photo by A Sharper Image