Day 15: If I could speak to any horse, dead or alive, what would I say?

I seriously almost skipped this prompt. It makes me misty just thinking about it.

Obviously, if I could speak to any horse, it would have to be Promise. I would tell her how much I miss her. That I still think of her every day. That I wish I hadn't let life get in the way of spending time with her, as often as I did. But that I worked hard to make sure she was happy and healthy, even when I wasn't there. That I wish she hadn't gotten hurt, so that maybe she'd still be here with me. That I wish I could feel that sense of partnership we had with another horse, any other horse...but even when I ride the same horse for several weeks in a row, I just don't feel even an inkling of the same connection in the saddle. I don't know them as well as I knew her, and I know it comes with time and spending years together. But I miss that.

Day 14: My dream barn/farm

When my husband and I moved to NC, I thought in the back of my head that maybe we could buy a house with a few acres that was set up for horses. In a lot of ways, I really do want to do this. But in a lot of other ways, I also want the convenience and flexibility of boarding.

Would I enjoy looking out my window and seeing my horses munching hay in my yard? Absolutely! But would I want to spend most of my time (when I am not working, that is) doing barn chores and maybe not having enough daylight or even energy to ride? Or feel like taking a vacation or weekend trip was just not doable? Those are the parts I'm not sure about!

I would love to have some fenced acreage with a 3, maybe 4, stall barn and maybe 2 horses -- one for me and one for the husband. But, I have a feeling I might end up doing a partial board situation someday, rather than adding the stress of having them on my own property!

Day 12: My favorite horse color, Day 13: A video of me riding

I am not really picky when it comes to color, but I am not generally a huge fan of chestnuts, unless they are liver chestnut. I love a nice seal bay color, like Promise was, and don't mind no markings if they have highlights and black points. And, of course, here's something really stunning about any dark color with chrome!


Here's a video of me riding Wilhemina through a gymnastic exercise: http://promisebaby.blogspot.com/2017/06/gymnastics_23.html

Day 11: Find a horse for sale online that I would want to buy

I fell in love with this guy back in March when I first saw the ad pop-up on my Facebook page. If I had managed to win the lottery drawing my office pool had tickets for a couple of nights after I first saw him, I would have called the farm and made an offer, sight unseen!

Photo credit CM Farms

He was the personal horse of one of the folks at CM Farms located in Gap, Pennsylvania. I want to make sure I give them due credit on everything, as it was their horse and their ad, and I'm just borrowing information for the sake of answering this question!

So, here is a link to their original post on Facebook for this amazing guy, Titan: https://www.facebook.com/cmfarms89/posts/1424120674305452

If you don't have Facebook, you can read the description of below:

This horse just blew me away. I felt that $25k was more than fair based on the HUGE array of photos and the almost 20 minute sale video for him (you can view it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCgQROhaf7Q&feature=youtu.be)

He goes english and western, he jumps, he will literally walk through fire, he will jump fire...he drives alone and in teams, you can ride him bareback, you can stand on him, you can shoot a rifle off of him...I can't think of many things I'd like to do with a horse that were *not* represented in his sale video. He also is a trained mounted patrol horse, so he's good in crowds and is level-headed (as if you couldn't tell already). He clips, and stands quietly on the cross-ties. He is very clearly VERY well broke. AND...he's gorgeous to boot.

Not only is he an incredibly good looking horse...but I just love his sweet face, his kind eye, and his sheer versatility and well-roundedness, all at the young age of 10. I feel like this is a horse I could have a LOT of fun on, but I could also throw a western saddle on him and have my husband toodle around and be totally confident that he'd be safe and well taken care of. If I had had the means, and was ready for my next horse, I would have seriously considered this guy.

Kudos to CM Farms for creating these incredible horses...I have yet to see an ad from their farm that I would not want to bring home in some capacity! I spend way too much time drooling over their ads!

I mean, look at this guy, too (original post here: https://www.facebook.com/pg/cmfarms89/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1505977056119813):

Day 10: How my family/friends feel about my riding

I'm not under any delusions that I wouldn't be horse crazy if my mom hadn't planted the seed early on in my life. I think I would absolutely be horse crazy no matter what -- but maybe if she hadn't started taking riding lessons after I was born, and then been riding double with me at 2 years old, I might never have actually ridden a horse.

Anyway, I think my mom totally gets my riding, since she created the monster. My closest friends don't really understand it, but have always been supportive, even if I am probably known as the crazy horse lady or something!

I almost had my best friend since middle school convinced to get on Promise one day when I had her in NH at school. We had driven up during a school break so I could ride and spend some time with Promise and she was SO good, that I was like, do you want to get on and walk around? T was like, uhm...no.

Evidence of my mom assisting with horse crazy -- using Promise as a model for a school assignment

For most of high school and early college, when I was in MA, I didn't trust Promise enough to let someone who didn't really ride get on her. She was just too unpredictable at times. But, both my mom and my grandmother rode her several times. My mom wasn't super impressed, she said Promise wasn't as comfortable as everyone claimed she was, which I totally disagree with to this day! But my grandmother absolutely loved her and Promise took such great care of her. She was just amazing for her and it made me so happy. I think she really loved her Nana!

Somewhat unrelated photo -- riding in Jamaica

Most of the time, I feel like my husband totally does not get the horse thing. I think he admires them because they are beautiful, but he is definitely uneducated about them and as a result, does not understand them at all. He does ask questions, though, and he's ridden a couple of times with me (like in Ireland, or the trail ride and swimming with horses we did for my birthday one year). He enjoys it, and actually has expressed interest in taking lessons, so that if/when we go back to ireland, he could join me in galloping on the beach or down the canter lanes....but he has not pursued it beyond that.

Day 8: A little about the barn I ride at and Day 9: Any injuries that occurred from riding

Day 8
When I moved to Raleigh, I researched a ton of barns that offered lessons and reached out to most of them. Several didn't bother to answer me, a couple didn't have space or horses available, and another 1 or 2 answered and then stop responding. It was incredibly frustrating. I understand the lesson programs in this area are very competitive with all of the intercollegiate and even middle and high school level riding teams, but still...here I was wanting to add money to their bank accounts every month!

I finally found this place about 20-30 minutes south of me and the barn manager was not only very responsive, she was very eager to meet with me and give me a tour the facility. I was able to set up an evaluation ride quickly and get into the end of the "session" of lessons right away.

The facility is beautiful. They have 200+ acres and 2 barns, an upper and lower. Seems like they keep their older school horses and lesson ponies at the lower barn, plus several boarders. A lot of the beginner lessons are taught there.

The upper barn is mostly for boarders and the more advanced lesson horses. I haven't counted how many stalls they have, but there are a lot of horses on the property! They have a huge assortment of lesson horses with different abilities -- something for everyone. Their group lessons are larger than what I was accustomed to (general size is 4-6 riders) -- but they are very efficient about it and I do feel I learn a great deal from my lessons. Watching other people and learning from what they are being critiqued on is just as valuable! I am very happy with the group lesson I am a part of. The time is great for me, and I've gotten to know the people I ride with. Also, the barn is very successful at local shows. Their school teams kick butt regularly.


Day 9
I was very lucky to not get injured the night that Promise flipped over backwards on me. But, another night a couple of years later, I was taking a a jumping lesson about 2 weeks before Christmas, my senior year in high school. We were practicing a grid exercise (this is where my reservations about grids comes from!) -- a crossrail to a small vertical to a larger vertical to a gate, which was set at maybe 2'9" or 3'.

The first several times we went through it, it went well, but then Promise started getting tired. She went over the first 2 jumps and then sucked back for the 3rd. She stopped at the 4th and then decided to go over from a standstill. I was left behind (because who jumps a fence that high from a standstill, horse?) and she bucked afterwards to right herself -- maybe even a little because she was ticked at me for getting left behind. I had lost my stirrups over the fence, so I came off to the left when she bucked. I went head first into the half wall of the arena (thank you, helmet!) and moved it about 2 feet on impact. The #1 cardinal sin about falling off is: don't try to catch yourself with your hands...well, I forgot that and tried to.

I laid there for a moment and felt ok, so despite everyone yelling at me not to move, I did roll over onto my back. My trainer at the time wanted to call an ambulance, and even though I should have accepted and probably been in a back/neck brace, I really didn't want one.

My mom drove me to the hospital and it was agonizing. My body felt fine, xrays and what not proved there was no neck or back injury, but my wrist was throbbing and every bump she hit on the way was excruciating. They tested me for a concussion and by some miracle, I did not have one. But my right wrist was definitely broken...in about 5 places.

My helmet was fine on the outside, although I did get it replaced immediately. But it was a couple of weeks before I was cleared to ride again. The doctor basically said once the pain had subsided enough that I could hold the reins, I was fine to ride again, but to take it easy to not injure it more even though it was in a cast.

Promise was getting training rides from my trainer while I was out of commission and she had really made leaps and bounds in behavior and rideability by the time I was back at the barn to ride after the new year. I was nervous about getting back in the saddle...what they say about getting right back on after a fall so you don't lose confidence is so true. I had trouble tacking her up because of the limited use of my dominant hand. I had to learn work arounds to get the bridle on her and even to pick her feet. She was patient with me for the most part and always really tried to do the right thing for me.

My trainer rode her for a while that night before I got back on for the first time and she was really great. I took a deep breath and she helped me mount. Then off we went. I mostly did walk-trot that night before cooling her out and we did the same thing for the first few rides. Once I started to feel how different my horse was, I started to slowly regain my confidence in myself and in her.

DAY 6: My favorite tack and riding clothes and DAY 7: My favorite ribbon won at a show and why

I'm a day behind on this. Oops! I love my County Symmetry saddle and the matching non-County bridle that we used to show in. Once we had moved to FL and were done showing (I was a poor college student and could barely afford just the horse most months!), I decided to use the bridle for schooling, too. Both pieces looked so great on Promise.

My favorite riding clothes are my SmartPak Pipers. I have burgundy and dark green and I alternate. I like to ride in workout tank tops, but the place I am riding has cracked down on their dress code, which says no racerback tanks, so I am not able to wear those anymore. So, back to sleeveless in the summer and lots of layers in the winter!



I actually don't have a favorite ribbon. I used to display them all at the top of the walls in my bedroom when I was a teenager. But then, relocating to FL, they all got kind of squished (even though I had painstakingly placed them in the box). I'm sure they would have straightened out eventually, but I've left them in the box over the years and every now and then start looking for an idea of something to do with them. I haven't come across the one that sparks the desire to work on something yet! Anyway, my favorite "prize" from a show is the trophy Promise and I won at the Marlboro Fall show series.

NABLOPOMO DAY 5: My first fall

I had been taking lessons for less than a year with my very first instructor, Denise. I rode on Sunday mornings and my grandmother would often ride Amber while I was taking my lesson (this was before my mom sold Amber and bought Sandy). This particular day was no exception.

I was on the lunge line in the indoor arena on a little black pony named Velvet. If I remember correctly, we were starting to learn to canter or something like that. My grandmother had been riding outside and she knew I was almost done, so she was cooling Amber out by walking her on the little trail that looped around the indoor. The arena doors were open. My grandmother forgot to announce "Door!" as they started to cross the back door, but I'm not sure it would have mattered. Velvet spotted them and took the excuse to spook...hard. She zigged and I zagged. I almost held on. Almost! I remember being suspended in midair for several seconds. It felt like an eternity. My left hand was still on the reins, whip in my right hand, left foot in the stirrup, right foot in the air...and then I landed on the ground. Almost on my feet, but not quite.

Actual footage :-P

NABLOPOMO DAY 4: A ride that impacted my life

This is a tough one! When I think about a ride that impacted my life, I think about the ones that stick with me, to this day, as being the most memorable. So, in that respect, there are a few that come to mind:

1. Dizzy (the morgan mare I mentioned yesterday) jumping the 4 ft oxer.
We had been schooling a single fence set on the center line heading home. I remember Dede telling me to circle at the far end of the arena at a trot and not pay attention to what she was doing. When she had reset it to the 4 ft oxer, she told me to pick up my canter, and head for the fence. I did, my heart skipped a little beat when I saw how big the fence was, because the dang pony (ok, horse, since she was a morgan, lol) was so little. But hell if that pony didn't lock onto that fence and clear it by at least a foot!

2. Galloping the canter lanes in Galway, Ireland on an Irish Cob.
My husband and I honeymooned in Ireland and one of the things I just HAD to do was go horseback riding while I was there. I found this amazing place after a lot of searching and reading reviews and booked it. My husband is not a rider, he's only been on horses a few times in his life, usually in a western saddle at a walk. So, I informed them of the huge difference in our ability when I booked, and they offered to give us 2 guides, so we could split up at one point in the ride. When the day finally came, I was SO excited. The rest is documented here: Exploring the Irish Countryside on Horseback

My Irish Cob for the day, Midnight

Loved this view!

3. So many great rides on Promise -- including a clinic where she bronc'd after I mounted but I sat it perfectly, brought her back and walked off like nothing happened, when the clinician was super impressed. Or later that same day when we were schooling haunches in and got her to piaffe accidentally. Or when she jumped 4 feet with me from a trot. Our first Champion and Trophy at a horse show.

4. My last ride on Promise.
I will never forget the last time I sat on her. She was dead lame, but I knew I didn't have much time left with her, so I decided to get on her bareback one more time.

Not from that excursion

Also not from that excursion

NABLOPOMO DAY 3: My Best Riding

I definitely think my best riding was as a tween/teenager.

I was about 11 when I found Dede (the trainer I bought Promise from). Once I started riding with her, I really started to come into my own and I got really, really good. She fueled my dreams of making the Maclay Finals, the Olympics, of going places. Obviously, that didn't happen because life got in the way and I fell in love with a barely started horse that had a lot of talent but was not going to take me to those places, no matter how much I believed in her!

Anyway, the farm Dede was at when I first met her was the one where I had started taking lessons when I was 6...it was under new management and had been totally redone and cleaned out. I really liked Dede instantly. We set up an evaluation ride and the rest is history.

Dede giving me a pep talk before my jumping round ca. 1997, with Sweet William

Her lessons were always an adventure. And I was riding so often that I was really fit and really strong. And of course, I was a teenager, so I was damn near invincible. She constantly challenged me to be better and I loved every minute of it.

She had me read a lot of books, including Mary Wanless "Ride with Your Mind," which I still refer to occasionally. She also taught me geometry lessons on horseback when I was struggling with the subject in high school.

For a while, most of my lessons and shows were done on a horse named Sweet William. He was amazing. I knew that horse so well, and could get him to do so much for me. I really started to get the "feel" down on William. We spent a lot of time going over which foot was touching the ground, which foot was leaving the ground, how to ask for things at the exact moment of movement to get the correct answer quickly and beautifully. To this day, that sense of feel sticks with me. I very rarely have to look for a diagonal even on a new horse. I just feel it. I know to ask for bend around my inside leg as the inside hind is leaving the ground so I can manipulate where it lands while it's in the air. It was a hard thing to learn but once I got it, I never lost it.

Pretty sure she was tying a different color ribbon in his braids to remind me where to release

Sweet William and I with our 1st of 2 Reserve Champion ribbons that day. He was such a good sport!

With William and Dede, No stirrups? No biggie. No reins? No biggie. No stirrups or reins? Ok, I'm game. Gallop up the hill at the back of the property in half seat with no stirrups or reins? We did that ALL THE TIME! It was so fun, but I'd be a little unnerved by it now!

She would put me on all of her lesson ponies to school them and tune them up and I loved every second of it. For a while, I rode this Morgan mare that had been pulled out of a field at like 8 or 9 after having babies all her life, started under saddle, and then brought to the farm for some training. That mare was amazing. She was tiny, maybe 14hh on a tall day. I could almost wrap my legs around her, but she was game for anything and jumped a 4 ft oxer with me like it wasn't even there!

Our ribbon haul...3 firsts, 1 second, 3 thirds and 2 reserve champions 

I was such a dweeb, but I love that William was smiling, too!

NaBloPoMo Day 2: The last time I rode a horse and what I did

I rode a horse just last night in my lesson! :) I've been riding Riko for several weeks now -- I made a point of telling K how much I like him and that I would love to keep riding him. Plus, my saddle fits him really well, so I've been riding in my own tack, too.

Last night we flatted for quite a while -- K was trying not to get them too sweaty, since it is chilly here, but Riko had gone in the lesson before mine, so that didn't work very well for him! 

Once we were warmed up, we practiced counter-cantering a few times down the long side of the arena. The first time I asked for the right lead while tracking left, Riko was like, "Oh, silly human, you're confused. But, don't worry, I've got this..." and off he went on the left lead! I brought him back to a walk, increased the bend to the outside, really exaggerated my inside leg moving back and tried again and he went, "Oh, you meant it. Ok." and picked up the right lead for a few strides. I instantly praised him and then he switched back to the left in the corner. 

The next time around, as we came into the short end before I was going to be asking for a counter-canter, I really focused on collecting him and getting an active walk, bending him to the outside, and preparing him by moving my inside leg back. I asked in the far corner for the right lead, and he instantly gave it to me. I praised him and then I held him in a tight package down the long side. When we got to the next corner, I asked him to walk and gave him a huge pat.

After that, we started warming up over a single crossrail and then she told us our course:

Riko was kind of full of himself, so she told me if I needed to, to bring him back to a walk, let him compose himself and then carry on. I didn't intend to do that, but coming out of the line to the single on the side with the right angle turn to the single in the middle, I clearly said with my body, "Hey, buddy, we're going left." And he clearly said with his much bigger body, "No, I don't know how to turn left, so we're going right."

I made him walk, and go left, and then asked for my canter and carried on. But I was so concerned about getting some "whoa" a few strides out, while also staying out of his way over the fence, that I forgot to do the right angle turn to the last fence...this happened both times we did the course. Oops. 

K said that's ok, he's being a turd and he's jumping these little crossrails like they are 2'6", so I care more that you grabbed mane, stayed with him, and rode well.

NaBloPoMo 2017 Day 1: When and Why Did I Start Riding?

I don't remember the "why" specifically. I think I have always been horse crazy. My mom and my grandmother started riding shortly after I was born. Something they had always wanted to do. Then, from about age 2 to maybe 4 or 5, we lived on a little bit of property in Georgetown, MA and had a few horses in the backyard. 

My mom on Amber

Some of my first horse memories are from this stage of life -- I remember Red, the big chestnut OTTB stallion that was so sweet and so totally un-stud-like, that my mom and her roommate completely trusted him if I wanted to hand graze him outside of the paddock. And I did, regularly. He'd munch on grass, being careful to keep his big body away from me, while our gigantic double-pawed cat would knead his back and then flop down for a nap. 

We also had Amber, a bay mare that my mom had bought with her yearling colt. The mare was a bit cuckoo, but Spirit, her colt, was curious and friendly. He would follow my mom around and untie her shoelaces or steal carrots from her back pocket. 

Me, on my mom's gelding Sandy, when I was 7 or 8. Helmet was only off for the photo!

This is also about the time I first started riding. When I was 2, my mom started riding double with me and taking me on trail rides. This surely didn't help the horse crazy kid, and by the time I was 6, I was enrolled in weekly riding lessons.

I'd been taking lessons for a couple of years when my mom got Sandy. He was a pretty fancy (for her budget!) Quarab gelding. She did a partial lease to the barn we were riding at to help pay for board, which meant they got to use him in their lesson program. I loved him and would beg to ride him in my lessons, but very rarely got to, because he would always run me up the shavings pile kept in the corner of the arena in the winter. She eventually had to sell him because he developed heaves so badly he couldn't be used. We found out later that they had been treating the arena with motor oil (a pretty common practice back then) and that was likely the cause of it. It always broke my mom's heart that she had to get rid of him, and I've spent quite a bit of time over the years trying to find him, to no avail.