October 27, 2012

Learning to jump, again...

Thanks to EB riding Rose during the week, I've been able to start jumping Rose again.  I have been very much looking forward to this, since she progressed so well last summer before I quit jumping her. However, last week I discovered to my dismay that she is happy to pop over an ex without concern, but as  far as a 2' vertical goes she was not having it. What happened is after effortlessly working through ground poles and then an ex, she jumped the vertical one time but then she hit the pole and refused to go over it again. At least it was a very honest refusal. She wouldn't get within 10' of the jump! LOL! So, back to basics. I got her over the ex again and then we just started with an 18" vertical. Once I finally got her over that, we did it a few times in each direction and ended on a good note.

Rose and her tiny vertical jump
My current plan is to just take it slow and start all over again with jumping. Eventually we will be back to jumping 2' and above.

On a postpartum note, I've officially lost all my pregnancy weight! All 40lbs. Woot Woot! I'm rather surprised, since I've only been able to ride once in a while and I am not doing any other exercise. I guess there is some truth to the whole breastfeeding weight-loss connection. Whatever the cause, I'm just happy to have a selection of breeches that I fit in to wear.

Happy trails and swooshing tails!
•DS•

October 24, 2012

Why I am a USEF member

It was time for my annual renewal of my USEF membership a few weeks ago. I happily got online and got us up to date. Often non-showing horse people in my world ask me why I bother with the membership, when (certainly now) I am not currently showing rated shows? "That's simple" I tell them "for the liability coverage".

I am greeted with a look of confusion and then awareness. It never crosses most people's minds that they should have liability coverage on their horse. After a few seconds pass, the preverbial "What liability coverage?" follow up question arrives.

I proceed to explain, that a USEF membership comes with a group liability insurance policy for the year that covers you and your horse from any liability damages, and why you should have coverage for your horse. For instance, your horse jumps out of it's pasture and runs down a road causing a traffic accident. You are covered.

I used to have separate liability coverage on Rose, in case she hurt anyone when they were handling her back in her young, unhandled, wild days. Then it came time to start showing her and I registered her and got my membership. Among the papers was this liability insurance that I was unaware of. The best part is, the cost of the USEF membership that includes the liability insurance is 1/3 the cost of a separate liability policy just for Rose. I immediately dropped my extra coverage and have been a USEF member ever since!

Happy trails and swooshing tails!
•DS•

October 10, 2012

Static is Back

I got to see my horse today. Yea! Unfortunately it was just a quick hello to hold her while Rose was getting her toes trimmed. It has been so dry here for the past three months (basically no rain at all) that her feet have been cracking and chipping a lot. I finally managed to get my two remaining post-pregnancy brain cells to bounce together and realized that I had a tub of Rainmaker hoof dressing in my tack trunk. EB and I have been diligently applying it for the past two weeks now and I like to imagine it might be helping. However, I should have busted it out in July to prevent the damage in the first place. Lesson learned. Next summer I will be all over that. The good news is that all of the cracking and chipping is minor and superficial. It's just not that pretty to look at.


Static Tail
After her trim, I decided to give Rose a quick groom before jetting back home to Jr. After running my pick through her tail I had to step back in a bit of humored amazement. Her tail looked electrified and was sticking out and clinging to anything it could, be it a leg or thin air. Winter is quickly approaching in Montana, and Rose already has a thick coat coming in. The snow  static just reminds me that clipping and blanketing is right around the corner. Fun times...not!

My yard last Wednesday
Happy trails and swooshing tails!
•DS•

October 2, 2012

The bitter tast of reality...


I feel like I'm a blogging downer these days. The huge irony is that my horse is doing quite well! So what is so bitter?

UNMET EXPECTATIONS
When you are pregnant people tell you stories about how women grieve the loss of their "birth plan". HA! That's easy to avoid I decided. I simply choose not to create one, beyond the fact that I would go to the hospital and have a baby, ever which way he decided to come out. In less than six hours I had an adorable baby in my arms. It worked like a charm.

What I didn't do was avoid making a post-baby riding plan. Oh, yes, you all may recall how I was going to get right back in the saddle, Rose and I both would get back into shape, do a couple local schooling shows and finish the season off with a rated show or two. Unmet expectations. I now realize what a ridiculous first time mom goal that was.

BITTER REALITY
The reality is that if I'm lucky I will get to ride my horse two times a week (Saturday & Sunday) at most. No easily getting back into shape, no schooling shows, and definitely no rated shows. No baby green hunter debut. There is just no way around it. Both my husband and I are self employed which is great, in that it allows me to be a work at home mom and keeps Jr. out of day care. It is bad however, because due to taking care of Jr. my income has been greatly reduced. This means that I can't afford to have a baby sitter watch Jr. while I go to the barn four days a week. Since my income is reduced, hubs can't spare his time to watch Jr. for me to get my horse fix either. That leaves me with the weekend only. Argh! Reality you are very very bitter tasting.

Rose - the horse I got to see twice in the month of September.
What is one to do? Personally I have a hard time justifying the cost of maintaining a show horse that I ride once or twice a week (a show horse, who for a while looked more like a bloated yack than a warmblood). However, the thought of selling Rose to only turn around and replace her in two more years (when I once again have free time to ride more often...hello preschool) seems foolish. The thought of selling her at all is one I don't like to even think about. Not getting to ride at all for two more years...that I could not deal with at all. Better one day a week than none. What to do?

Half-lease. This is the only thing I've been able to come up with. I've never lease out one of my horses so I'm very nervous about doing it and will probably have so much red tape involved that I'll never find a lessor, but I see no other choice at this point. Ironically I'd love to have EB lease her, but I don't know that she can afford it as a college student. She's been doing such a great job with Rose though that I couldn't be happier. Truly, EB has been a life saver this past month.

Have any of you had any good leasing experiences? Any tips or advice?

Happy trails and swooshing tails!
•DS•

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