16. One thing you'd like to change about your horse
Lex:
It's a tossup between making her less of a witch about the aids and getting rid of the wing on her right front. But I can live with both.
Rocket:
Gosh, I don't know. I'm worried she's going to be too big to have a sport horse job, but I can't be sure of anything until she's grown. I suppose I wish she didn't have feathers, but clippers will take care of that!
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| SO. MUCH. HAIR. |
17. Your horse's future
Lex:
Well, she'll spend the winter working mostly on flatwork and some introductions to jumping. When she's ready, we'll take her to some small shows in the hunter ring, because it's a kinder introduction to showing than the jumpers. We'll skip the under saddle classes and just do the over fences stuff, because she's not going to really be a hunter and there's no point in putting a thoroughbred in the position of cantering in a circle with a bunch of other horses if that isn't going to be her job in life. Eventually, when she's ready, to the jumper ring she'll go. I hope. After we've had our fun for, I hope, many years, I'll let her retire to being a trail horse and maybe she can have a foal or two, if I'm in the financial position to raise myself a couple babies from scratch. We'll see.
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| FOALS?! |
Rocket:
She really just needs to have a good life. She's not bred for anything in particular, except maybe driving, which I have less than no interest in. I could see her being a foxhunter. But for now, she will grow up and I'll start her under saddle when she's three and go from there.
18. Your worst show ever
Dudes, don't even get me started. I've had stops, I've fallen off, I've gone off course, I've done everything wrong. Made every mistake. I had a show recently in which the horse would. not. go. in. the. ring. He reared, threw an enormous hissy fit, freaked out the ring steward. When we finally got in there, he wouldn't jump a stick. I wanted to die for days after that.
19. Favorite horse show venue
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| KHP. I just want to trot through all the lanes forever. |
I love the Kentucky Horse Park and the Virginia Horse Center. Haven't shown at either place in years.
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| I've had some good times in this ring at the Virginia Horse Center. |
Ha, these days there's barely a routine because there hasn't been much showing. I've had the horse and the tack clean for days leading up to it, but I do a final spit shine the night before. Get the horse(s) on the trailer, get to the venue, check out the courses. I usually have to coach kids in the hunter ring for awhile, so I do that, and then I learn the jumper courses. Hop on the horse, warm up, go in the ring, and ride. This weekend I think I have to ride in the hunter ring a little to see if a couple of our school horses will jump around at a show and behave themselves, but I don't think it will change the routine much. I don't know, I don't really get bad show nerves or anything.
Haha. We should compare bad show stories. I pretty much didn't have a good show until I got Cuna and I wish I was making that up. Even my mom was like "Wow, it's so much more fun to come to shows with Cuna because you don't suck anymore."
ReplyDeleteNot even kidding.
Glad I'm not the only one who can't understand what people see in driving. Nothing about it appeals to me. Not a single thing.
PS--Courage is perfectly happy to canter around in a group without getting the least bit bothered. Cuna has always been a nut about it. Just depends on the horse, so don't rule Lex out unless you've tried it.
True, she might not mind cantering around in a group, but I have a feeling she's gonna be like, "Lemme win the RACE!!!" She does fine in the ring right now when other horses are cantering, but we've been focusing on walk and trot work for the most part. I'm not hung up on it. I have no visions of division champion ribbons in the hunters with her, especially given that she wings.
DeleteNOTHING appeals to me about driving AT ALL. People keep suggesting that as a career for Rocket, and I'm like, ehhhhh. Only if I sell her to someone who wants to drive her, which is unlikely. Pretty sure my mom would disown me if I sold her!
But think of how fun it will be to constantly wash and groom her feathers? LOL! She may be too big for 3'6" jumpers, but my draftX who was veeeeeeeery chunky would have made a great little 2'6" horse for a beginner rider. She will find her niche!
ReplyDeleteHa! Yes, the grooming would be TONS of fun. I'm already an obsessive weirdo about grooming my relatively-hairless TB.
DeleteYou're right to note that she might be a perfectly fine jumper over small fences. Sometimes I forget that not every horse has to jump huge fences to be useful! My mom has no desire to jump over 2'6" again, I don't think, so I could always give her back to Mom and let them have their fun.
There's a horse that shows on our local H/J circuit who has major issues getting into the ring. In fact, the trainer clears everyone way and uses a lung whip to get him in -- usually he walks in on his hind feet. But once he's in, he wins. Everything.
ReplyDeleteI think Calvin and I would have done very well that day if my brain hadn't been so blown by his in-gate behavior, honestly. There was nothing in there we couldn't have done. I just didn't see it coming and we were both super tense in the ring and neither of us did our jobs. Ugh, still sucks to write about.
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