Updates from Summer, 2011

Well hello, everyone! It's been a long time...and for that I apologize, but I promise it's all for good reason.

Right now I'm in Montana at the Yellowstone Club, because last night I was Maid of Honor in my best friend Molly's wedding. I can't believe she's a Struve now!! Wow how time flies.

There are more updates than I can even plan out on how I'll say them, so I'll start with Jimmy & move on from there...

Jimmy has been leased to the most caring & wonderful family in the world. He now lives at Daybreak Farm & belongs to a darling girl named Miranda. They are enjoying trail rides, lessons, and competing at PTS horse shows in the "Special WT & WTC" division. Here is a photo of the two of them together at their first horse show a few weeks ago - where they won Reserve Champion in the Special Division. Go Miranda & Jimmy!!

Next comes Diesel. Diesel has been my project since March of 2011 & he's really been an honor to work with. He came to CVE not understanding riding or steering or much of anything at all so I started him from the ground up (literally) and helped him trust & understand that riding & being with people is a cool thing to do. He progressed beautifully & this past week was sold to Oakwood Farm's trainer Katie Rose. He will be her personal "project" to finish out & then he will be a school horse. Go Diesel!! Here's a photo of Diesel & I in May, 2011.

Backtracking to June, 2011 - I had a tremendous fall from Marci, which left me in the ER with a possible fractured femur, tailbone & right arm. Luckily...none of those bones were broken but it was a solid 6 weeks before I could ride anyone, which is when I decided it was time Jimmy found a home to love him. I realized he and I just weren't right for one another anymore - we no longer did one another a favor. He was a chore for me & while I loved him & (I believe) he loved me, we didn't enjoy our riding time together any more. I wanted to ride hard and jump and train & he was much happier trail riding and doing light hacks here & there. One conversation at a horse show had Betsy Anderson out to see him with Miranda & her mom & the next day he left for his new 'home'. I couldn't be happier with this situation because it's allowing me the time I wanted to spend with Bill & my family & my friends through this crazy summer/fall of WEDDINGS. Here's a photo of what my leg looked like about a week after the fall. Not one of my finer moments ***CAUTION GRUESOME PHOTO AHEAD***

That said...I can never sit still too long & when I had my accident a friend had posted an ad of a little solid paint 15hh bay mare who desperately needed to get out of a bad situation. She was purchased to be a family horse and in the wrong hands, any wonderful horse can go from great to ghoul. Well, I watched her as long as I could & when I knew Diesel was sold & Jimmy was leased I jumped at this little mare....who is now known as "Chloe". Chloe came home Thursday night, however I've been in Montana since Thursday morning so it will be a few more days before I'm home and can see her. The resemblance between her & Jimmy is astounding and the moment I saw her I fell in love with her. I think in a few short weeks she will have her mentality straightened out, her rough patches under saddle smoothed & she'll be coasting over-fences like nothing. I expect she will also find a wonderful home in the very near future - once she & I have had our fun. Please click the following link to view a video of my Chloe: http://youtu.be/XOl0UDZRQ10 You can also see a photo of her below...the similarities are uncanny. Long lost sister?!

That about brings us up to speed - there's just one other project I'm working with (a little) right now & that's my friend Jamie's horse, Haleigh. Haleigh is a 4 year old Belgian Warmblood who's sired by the phenomenal show jumper, Coronado. I am grateful for the chance to work with such a well-bred mare, and anxious to see how she progresses. She will be for sale late fall. Everyone, meet Haleigh:

9 weeks 6 days until Bill & I are husband & wife...and I become Mrs. Bedsole!! I have 4 more weddings before ours though, so it will be a wild 9 weeks :) Wish me luck & I'll do the best I can at updating everyone on Chloe's progress and the progress of the other projects CVE is getting in. Enjoy the weather!!

Equine Podiatry Clinic at Morrie Waud / Jimmy Schools Easy / Meet Diesel

Saturday this weekend I went up to Morrie Waud Equine Clinic for a "Podiatry Solutions to Improve Equine Performance". I have to say the educational portion for horse owners was unbelievably interesting. The second half of the day was more geared toward farriers, so when they started getting really into it, they kind of lost me and I kept catching myself day dreaming.

Here are some of my notes of the things I learned from the day:

• Bad feet = muscular deformity = saddle fitting issues
• Sore heels typically take 4 shoeings (every 4 weeks) to show improvement
• Always get Xrays to show foot formation - ask your vet to check the balance of coffin bone to the ground
• Big hind feet typically means the horse is more athletic, more to "push" with
• Wedge pads help alignment
• Once a horse is "cured" of lameness through proper shoeing techniques, KEEP IT UP. Going back to your old ways will make your horse's lameness return
• The goal is to always have the frog on the ground. Strong frog = strong foot
• Dont pick hooves before riding (unless the horse has been on stones) - The mud/manure that's naturally packed it's way into the frog is comfortable for how the horse walks & this way horses won't sink all the way into the sand & grind it up into their hooves.

Pretty interesting!! Basically, every single thing they mentioned in problem/solution for sore heels was like they had been just watching Jimmy and documenting every moment. If they have sore heels, they compensate on their toes, causing lameness. The lameness then goes up into their shoulder, and into their back. With proper shoeing & padding in the feet after regular, consistent sessions the horse will regain strength in their hooves & their shoulders & backs will reshape, potentially causing saddle fitting problems because their backs are finally relaxed and building muscle from comfortable, natural movement....

IS THIS LIKE DEJA VU OR WHAT!?!? Jimmy had ouchy heels. He went REALLY lame. We found Tim. He got sound. I had to get my saddle fixed. Oh. My. Goodness. Every word the farrier & vet team were saying to the crowd I felt like they just directed straight at me. Light bulb. Light bulb. Light bulb. It was pretty amazing. I text Tim and let him know that according to UW, he's the perfect farrier :-) God bless the team of vet/farrier that I have for Jimmy!!! Unreal.

In other news - we schooled a gymnastic today a few times and a little vertical off many different turns and Jimmy was quiet, easy & pleasant. No complaints, just good Jimmy. All is well in our world.

Horse show season is coming up so the pressure to perform is on & I've got a new project to work on that hopefully won't stick around too long, even though I'm kind of digging him a lot right now :-) His name is Diesel and he's a very, very cool dude. Here he is:

Diesel is a 16.3hh 2002 OTTB. He never raced, but he is tattooed so he was definitely brought up on the track. Based on his body and coordination (or currently...lackthereof??) he DEFINITELY was too slow for the track. He's just HUGE, everywhere. Big head, big legs, huge feet, and a belly you can't begin to wrap yourself around. He's as sweet and gentle as can be, just desperately in need of an education and consistent riding. He's learning, slowly but surely, and I'm really having a riot of a time with him. Every time I work with a new green horse I think, "Oh gosh. I really, really love this." and I seriously do. I have a passion for green horses that radiates through my core. I just love teaching their stupid little brains and making them smart little brains :-)

Diesel has impeccable movement and even though he's far from coordinated right now, he's definitely going to make a beautiful hunter. We're just riding walk/trot and he and I work on the ground so he has the cardio workout of cantering as well. In the field all day, he just stands and eats. He isn't active in the least so he needs someone to rev his engine a little bit (and work off a little of that BELLY!!!) He's learning steering and stopping. He steers pretty well, I can't say the same for stopping, yet. He's learning "HO" and improving every day.

Thankfully, I have the motivation of my November wedding keeping me going while he is tugging and leaning against me in the bridle and when I get home and lay on the couch with my muscles throbbing I remember "It's worth it. He's awesome....." and "....I'm going to have such nice arms for the wedding!" HAHA What kind of bride would I be if I didn't think of that as a reason to ride more?!

If you have anyone interested in a guy like him (even though I'm not exactly ready to part with him just yet...) you can see his online advertisement here. Oh, and we also have a really really cute pony for sale right now too. She's seriously adorable. Check her out here. 

Far Too Busy

Not only have I been too busy to write blogs, I've been too busy to READ all of yours!!! I am so, so sorry!!! This season has taken a hold of me and try as I might, I can't seem to find any more free time - when I DO have free time I have no motivation to get things DONE! You don't even want to see my bathroom, you really don't.

But, to fill you all in there are just two major quick points I want to share:

1. Jimmy jumped a whole course yesterday - 2 X's, a vertical, and a box! HOORAY! All strides & lead changes & pure happiness resulted. THREE CHEERS FOR JIMMY CHOO!!!! My perfect horse :-) I need some work over fences since it's been so long...but luckily....

2. Pepe has moved in with us! Saturday we decided to make the move & bring Pepe to where Jimmy is now for 30 days to try & get some more time in the saddle on him & get more people out to see him. Cross your fingers the seeds I've put out there will harvest and turn into a sale!!

Hope everyone is doing what they can to STAY WARM!!! Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr CHICAGO!!! Happy riding <3

Helmet Debate: UPDATE

WE HAVE A WINNER!!! HOORAY!!! *crowd cheers*

The Ovation Extreme Helmet takes all! The Tipperary that I really wanted did NOT fit whatsoever and the lower-priced Ovation wasn't quite as comfortable to me. So HOORAY! Now I have a goal: I must save up $74.99 + tax to go buy this helmet at Saddler's Row. I've looked it up online and the cheapest I've found is $66 at eqtack.com and $67 on Equestrian Collections both of which have shipping fees, and I'd have to WAIT to get them after I saved up the money...which I don't wait very well, so that just isn't happening. With my size and color, I can hope that they'll have it at the tent sale, but since it's a very new line of helmet, I doubt it. I will be scouring the horse show prize lists I get in the mail for coupons though!!!

Here's a picture of it:
I think it looks really nice! And since all helmets now are ASTM approved, why wouldn't I buy a $74.99 helmet instead of spending $150+ on something that protects my head the same way and is less comfortable? In the hunters now even styles like this are completely acceptable, so the schooling and possible eventing I plan to do in the future won't be a problem. I'm going to be cool and COMFORTABLE, BABY!!! Can't wait!

MORE STUFF!

Today was productive & I finally took pox of more stuff & posted it to Flickr!

SHOP AWAY!!!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12327730@N08/

New Hobby

So, I've started selling my old stuff online. It's awesome, because it cleans out the garage, and I make money!

Here's the link! I'll be taking more photos of my millions of saddle pads this weekend. Refresh Monday to check out MORE stuff!! Probably will be adding girths and bridles too....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12327730@N08/

Enjoy! Buy stuff! I do accept PayPal :)