In need of my pony fix

Every winter I struggle with finding the motivation to ride.  It's cold and the weather just sucks.  The ponies all have way too much energy from being cooped up in their stalls.  And I find a lot of times I just don't want to ride.  This winter especially has been made even more difficult by the fact that Derrick's days off have been falling over the weekend recently.  When we get so little time together as it is between our work schedules, I admit I have been sacrificing barn time to be with him.  This past weekend however I was going to the barn.  I would ride and spend time with the ponies.  And then Saturday morning I woke up to snow.  Enough snow that my little Versa wasn't getting out of the driveway.  Damn you PA winters!  Next week though I will make it to the barn. 

So no real riding update, but I couple of things I wanted to share with you.  First this photo was shared with me the other day.  A friend of mine had a half arab colt that she purchased as a baby.  She showed him in halter and ended up selling him when she purchased her new Arabian gelding for Western Pleasure.  KC is now with Gordon Potts of The Brass Ring in Texas and is ready for the show ring.  KC looks amazing, and if anyone is interested in a young western pleasure horse I recommend taking a look at him. 

KC with Nikki in 2009

KC looking all grown up!

And I need to ask for some jingles for a blog friend.  Ashley over at The Process of Learning has been eagerly awaiting her mare Ella's foal.  Well baby arrived yesterday, but she's a little premature.  So everyone please send jingles her way.

Ella and Baby

 

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Pony Profiles: Ziplock's Miss Murphy

So I've come to realize that although you guys know a lot about my current ponies, I've not really talked in much detail about the ponies that have brought me to where I am now.  Since winter is upon us once again after two days of warm weather teasing us, I can't really do much riding.  So it's the perfect time to take a trip down memory lane.

After much begging and pleading, my mother finally gave into my need to ride a horse.  Of course living in town we really had no idea where to go to take lessons.  Luckily my great aunt's neighbors had horses and were willing to take on a horse crazy kid.  Those neighbors were, of course, Nikki and her dad Tom.  I didn't really get lessons, per say, as Nikki wasn't an instructor.  But she did let me ride her horses and started me on this obsession.  Even without formal lessons, I learned a lot from Nikki and Tom.  Not only did I learn the basics of riding, but I learned how to take care of horses, how to be a show groom and things like that.  The first horse that I rode was a 1989 Appendix Quarter Horse mare named Ziplock's Miss Murphy.  Murphy was Nikki's hunt seat horse after Natasha was retired and while she was waiting for Image to be old enough to ride.  When I met Nikki, Murphy was actually in foal and so I learned to ride in a western saddle as we couldn't get the english saddle on her.

I was able to get a couple of months riding on Murphy before she had her foal.  Who, by the way was an adorable little palomino colt, SA One Tuff Zipper.

Nikki ended up selling Murphy shortly after Tuffy was weaned.  Once I could no longer ride Murphy, I spent some time riding Image a bit.  But around this time is when Nikki headed off to school and I had to find somewhere else to ride.  Nikki gave the names of a few barns, one of which was Windhurst Farm.  After calling around, we decided that Windhurst sounded like the best option as I could join Little Creek Pony Club.

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Pink Ribbon Horse Show

September 10-12 was the last show of the season with my little western pony.  We headed up to Meadville, PA for the Pink Ribbon Horse Show.  It really primarily an ASB show, but there are a few Arab classes and then open classes.  It's a lot of fun, they set up the ring in front of the grandstand.  And Saturday evening is the Pink Ribbon night were everyone gets all dressed up.  Plus lots of vendors come in for the show, so it really just a good time.

The class schedule for Dalal was a little goofy.  We had 3 classes Friday.   Tom took him in the Jack Benny first in the morning session.  Then in the afternoon I was up first with the Arab Western Pleasure Open.  We had an okay class.  There was a very persistent fly that kept bothering Dalal, so it wasn't our best performance.  But of well.  We ended up 4th out of 5 in the class.  Then just 2 classes later Tom took Dalal back in the ring for the Open Western Pleasure.  It was a huge class, 16 and two of those were draft horses.  I can honestly say I'm glad I wasn't riding that one!  After that we didn't have anymore classes until Saturday night when Tom took him in the Open Western Pleasure Championship.  Unfortunately it started pouring down rain shortly after the evening session started.  So everything was just very wet!  The horses all made the best of it.  And Tom ended up with a 6th place finish in a big championship class.  Not too bad all things considering.

Luckily the rain stop overnight, but it didn't really dry things up all that much.  So when I headed into the ring Sunday morning for the Arab Western Pleasure Championship things were still very wet.  I actually had to ride about 10 feet off the back rail because it was just a huge puddle.  And Dalal was really not happy about the footing.  He does not like when the wet sand stats hitting his little manly bits.  So we ended up 3rd out of 3 behind Courtney and Donna.  Both really good horses, so honestly I don't know that I could have improved my placing at all.

It ended up being an early end to the show for us, which was nice because it gave me time to stop by Harlansburg on my way home and see Nikki and the C&G crew at the NWPAHA Summer Classic Show.  It was the first time I had a chance to see Nikki since everything happened with Image.  So it was nice to get to see her and catch up a bit.  And then I got roped into helping out by Jody, which was kinda funny.  She was sending me back to the barn to tell the kids to get horses ready.  Meanwhile, I know none of these kids and none of the horses.  Oh well.  The horses all made it up to the ring in plenty of time and it was all good.  I got the chance to see Kelly and Lark in a couple classes.  And I have to say I'm really impressed with how much she's come along with that mare this summer.  Every time I see Kelly and Lark, they look better and better.

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End of the Season

Well, it looks like the horse show season has finally come to an end. I went with Tom to the Pink Ribbon Horse Show in Meadville the second weekend of the month. I had a lot of fun there, even if we didn't place all that well. The ring was pretty crappy, the footing at the rail was so deep. Dalal did not like going through that stuff, so I was staying about 5 or 6 feet off the rail, and I guess the judge didn't like it. We ended up 4th in both the Arabian Western Pleasure and the Adult Western Equitation. And then we were 5th in the Arabian Western Pleasure Championship. I blew a lead in the championship class and so that put us at the end. Oh well, we had a good time.

Then last weekend we went to Randolph Classic Charity Horse Show. Nikki took Image and KC, and she also brought her friend Kelly, and her horse Lark. Now I love Nikki dearly but I have to say, it's so much more relaxing to show without her! She takes it all so seriously! So Friday we didn't have any classes. Nikki and KC had the Half-Arabian Halter in the evening session, but no performance classes. I went to work Friday and just left early so I could make it there in time for KC's class. They ended up 3 out of 3 in the class. She was pretty pissed though because according to the show rules, you couldn't show in the Open Halter if you showed in Breed Halter class. Tom and I tacked up Dalal and I rode him a bit in the warm-up ring. Tom asked if I was willing to ride without stirrups. He asks me this like it's something that I wouldn't be able to do. Like Bonnie doesn't torture me with things like that all the time, like I don't jump without stirrups. Anyways, Dalal and I had a good ride that evening, made me feel pretty good about the show.

Saturday morning I had the first class, Adult Equitation and Nikki was in my class. We had an okay ride in the class. Only when we went to lope the first direction, I was a little too close to Dr. Holly and Dalal picked up the lope before I asked for it and we got the wrong lead. It was a big class, and it was a good class so that was enough to keep us out of the ribbons. Then in the afternoon we had the Arabian Western Pleasure class. Again it was a good class, Nikki & Image, Emily & Tony, Tom C, Paul C, and then the other Tom with his untrained horse. The untrained horse won the class with Nikki second. It was pretty bad, I don't think the judge really knew what he was looking at. Tom ended up taking Dalal back in for the Arabian Championship that evening. Again the untrained horse won and Nikki was second.

Sunday morning Tom had the first class with the Open Western Pleasure, they had a decent ride and were third behind the untrained horse and Nikki. Then I went back for the Western Equitation Championship. Of course Nikki won and then Shelley and her QH mare were second. Dalal and I ended up third. Then we were 4th in the Ladies Western Pleasure that afternoon. Actually that one really pissed me off. We had a good ride, except right as we were jogging down the far rail some people under this one canopy squirted some baby powder, like they use to get the saddlebreds up and showing. Dalal saw it an shied off the rail. Then the next time around he shied at the same spot. Then when we lined up at the end of the class, one lady brought her mare right next to Dalal. So of course his attention was on the mare all throughout the line up. She ended up second in the class. And I later found out that the people under the canopy were with her barn. Kinda makes me wonder if the powder was an accident or was on purpose to help her place better. Oh well, what can you do.

And so ends the 2009 show season. At least for us. I'm pretty sad that it's over. I know Bonnie didn't like me going to so many shows with Tom, but I really had a good time. It was always a lot of fun. And I really enjoyed hanging out with Tina, the Kims, Mary Lou and Bill. Really was a lot of fun and I'm definitely looking forward to next season. And I'm going to put some time in to really work for it next year. I want to do well, more so than just hoping on for the class and not really practicing at all. Plus I think next year X is going to go out as a hunter pony. As long as I'm going I might as well see if Tom will haul him too. Make X go out an do some work. I'm sure he'll love that!

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Home Again

Saturday was a busy day for me. Tom and Mary Ann were in Saratoga for the weekend so I was feeding his horses. Got his horses fed early so I could be out to Bonnie's about 7 or so. Miss had an appointment with a vet at 9 for a chiropractic check up so we had to leave by 8. Got all the horses fed at both places and on the road on time. Katie and Astrid both wanted to go with us, so they piled in the back of the truck. We found the vet clinic just in time for Miss' appointment. She was a mess all over. Her pelvis was twisted about three different ways. And then because she was compensating for that, her whole back was out of whack. He worked on her for about an hour, stretching her, and popping things back in place. As he worked you could see her relax and get more comfortable. When he finished I jogged her up and down the drive again, man was she moving better already. She climbed right up on the trailer, no hesitation at all on her part. He gave us some exercises to do with her at home, getting her to stretch through her back and lift her back up. When we got her home, I walked her in the arena for about 10 minutes. Of course Kaye had to come out with us. Miss was almost overstepping at the walk, which she hasn't done in a long time. She was in heat, and squatting and teasing Kaye, another thing she hasn't been able to do in a long time. I am amazed by the change in her already.

So after we got Miss settled in, Rachel and Beth came out for our lesson. I tacked Kaye up in the dressage saddle since we were going to work on dressage anyway. Plus I still wanted to go over my saddle with the Passier stuff after the soaking it got at Lost Hounds. So I got Kaye ready, Rachel had Airy and then Astrid joined us with Naughtie and Katie with Tru as well. We warm up and then rode some dressage tests. I rode the beginner novice test A once, and man was it good! Better even than I rode at the show. Then we ran through beginner novice test B a couple of times. It went pretty well, except Kaye started to get pissy at the end. She wanted to jump! So Bonnie had me change saddles. Which was a pain since I had to use the 16 1/2 which is just a tad too small for comfort. Bonnie set up a little course for us. We started out over the little crossbar in the middle. Kaye jumped it once and then she was not happy with that small of a jump. Eventually the jumps were raised. We ended up jumping the middle fence as a 2' oxer both ways, a 2'5" vertical and then a skinny that was about 2'8". Kaye had a blast and so did I. :) Katie actually did all the exercises as well and she only had two stops. That was a pretty good day for her as well. And she didn't get in my way to much, so yay for not annoying me!


In other news Spider was supposed to get gelded this week. Notice I said supposed to. Bonnie took him over to Tammy's on Wednesday, and both he and Titus were to get snipped. Well there were some complications with Titus. He started bleeding and they had to get him outside and finish it with him on the ground. He's okay now, but it ended up taking so long that they never got to Spider. So Spidey still has all his little manly bits. Titus came over to our barn to recover on Thursday. And so we've been having some fun training him. We taught him how to lunge and how to step over poles on the ground. We also taught him to step over the scary blue tarp. And then Sunday we saddle broke him. He was so good for it. I lunged him both directions first and then Bonnie brought out the pony saddle. We put that on him and just loosely did up the girth. Walked him around a bit, tightened the girth some. Walked some more and then tightened the girth a bit more. I lunged him then with the saddle. The only thing he did was a little cow kick when I went to lunge him, but he wasn't anywhere near me, and that was it. He was so good. Afterwards he went into the barn and was untacked in the aisle like the big horses. He's really liking all the attention he's getting. We put him back in his stall and he just looked at us like "hey where are you going? Aren't we going to learn something else now?" So cute. I wish he didn't have to go back to Tammy's.


Sunday I headed over to Crooked Creek Horse Park to see Nikki ride. Unfortunately, as I mentioned before, Tom was in Saratoga, otherwise I would have had a horse to ride. I got there just as Nikki was tacking up for the Open Western Pleasure. And she was going in the class in sidesaddle. She had a sidesaddle on trial and she was thinking about buying it, but she wanted to ride in a class in it first. And since the show didn't have a sidesaddle class she had to go in a regular western pleasure class in it. Image was being a snot, he was feeling pretty good. Actually though, even with him being a brat, Nikki still had a better ride than the other two in the class. Unfortunately the judge had no idea what to do with her in sidesaddle. So she ended up third. Really a shame because the woman on the quarter horse who was in second was two handing her horse every chance she got. She should have been disqualified, that's illegal!

Loping the first direction

In the line up

Apparently the judge really liked Courtney because he placed her ahead of Nikki in a couple other classes and then Nikki came back to win the Adult Western Equitation. She ended up not going in the Arabian Western Pleasure classes on Sunday as she was also working for C & G, helping Jody get horses ready for the other riders. I had a good time getting to spend the day with Nikki and catching up on things. I hadn't had a chance to talk to her about her week working for Gordon Potts in Fort Worth yet, so I got to hear all about that, including about the job he offered her. Lucky her, she gets to work with horses full time now. She'll be travelling to about one show a month with Gordon and then working for Jody and C & G Ranch. I'll admit it, I'm jealous. I'd love to be able to quit me job and be with horses all day. Well, maybe someday I'll be able to.

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