♣Ambitious♣

I've just been staring at my computer with a resting bitch face trying to figure out how I want to start a post that is guaranteed to be filled with bitter undertones. Because, let's face it, I'm bitter. 2016, I have a lot of shade to throw at you, and, honestly, most of it doesn't even have to do with horses. It has been . . . a year. In it's entirety, 2016 wasn't all bad for me. As a matter of fact, a lot of good things have happened. Instead of doing the usual goals review format (since I already addressed that during the summer) it's time to just focus on the good. I GOT A NEW SADDLE AND MY OLD SADDLE FINALLY SOLD. Old saddle was a bit, um, dated? That show outfit is also dated, tho. Through leasing Max, I was able to put a handful of new tricks in my pocket to be more successful with green horses. *wiggles inside rein on every horse ever* I started vlogging! And it's been so much fun!!! I've been able to be a part of two amazi...

One of the pros of living on the Eastern shore is the generally mild winters. It's only ever "bad" during Em Niño years since nobody is quite ready for winter after having 80℉ weather well after Christmas. The occasional 50℉ days during a regular year are nice, but they come at a price: rain. What's one thing horse people (especially those without an indoor) hate? Rain. Rather than reschedule my Thursday lesson for today, I opted to suck it up and haul with the gang to the place where Max was boarded in August. It's still a nice place, and four of Miss El's students fit rather snuggly in the indoor with another lesson happening. I took Roman, who's never been to this place before. He's been off-site several times and has visited many different barns, but, he's Roman. Very large very distracted Roman. We got there, unloaded, I put him on the cross ties, and baby War Horse couldn't stop moving. Just pacing as much as he could, tried to straight u...

Take my word for it: Dressage isn't nor will it ever be laid back. No matter how many big, loose sweaters you put on, it will always hurt. 1. Chloé Striped Chunky Knit Sweater      matchesfashion.com 2. Retro Candy Color Skinny Belt      newchic.com 3. De Niro Ottaviano Brushed Jachtkap Koole Ruitersport     no longer available ( but these can be ordered as custom boots ) 4. Horze Silvia Women's Denim Full Seat Breeches      horze.com 5. Charles Owen V8 Helmet      charlesowen.co.uk/us/products/v8

This is my very first year participating in the gift exchange. I'd seen everyone posting about it the past couple of years, and I decided that 2016 was the time to make it happen.Thank you to Tracy for hosting, and thank you to Draft Mare for the lovely package! It was on the steps when I got home on Tuesday, and while I had originally planned to wait until Christmas to open it, I couldn't help myself. First was treats! They have already been shared with Silver and Roman, though I'm saving some for the barn back at school. School ponies need to feel loved too. I also received some leather treatment products by Higher Standards Leather Care. A super useful gift considering the new saddle; I'd bet money that thing is as old as me. Finally (and I swear Draft Mare was being psychic about this one) concentrated hair moisturizer. Let me be clear: I am very serious about the condition of the mane and tail, more so the tail since most manes are cut too short to...

Ride #2 on Silver, another success! Decided to opt for a lesson this time bc the canter needs much work. We started in the Dressage ring working on getting him onto the bit. His owner commented that he tends to be behind the leg, but I haven't felt that personally. He's pretty responsive. He just doesn't always respond how we want him to. Forward is there, now time to get soft. Lots of inside leg (mainly thigh) and inside rein, steady outside rein, sometimes outside seat bone, just depends on what's happening. He's a very, erm, opinionated gelding, but when he's good, he's good. Happy to have him in the Big Gray Gelding Squad, even if he's small horse sized. Trot and canter were generally fine, and we had our good moments. He's much harder going to the left than the right, so I might opt to add in some carrot stretches. Transitions also aren't as prompt or together as I'd like them to be, but that'll come with time. Current jum...

I got home from break and literally did not even wait to step foot in the barn. I went to bed on Tuesday, woke up on Wednesday and went straight to my lesson. The goal for this winter break is to ride twice a week. I'm going to be home for at least a month, and Miss El already kicked my butt in the first lesson, so it'll be a productive break. I had actually asked her a couple weeks ago about riding during break since I knew I was going to be trying horses. I told her I wanted to ride twice a week, and she said I could absolutely ride Roman if that was the case. Now, let's rewind for a minute. First, who the heck is Roman? Roman is Miss El's personal horse who she's had as long as I've known her. When I first met Roman, he was a very curious, inquisitive, personable, distracted 3 year old. He's still all of those except now he's 6. Whither is basically head height One of my goals for 2016 was to finally ride him because why not. I planned that as...

I got home for winter break on Tuesday night, and I promptly had a lesson on Wednesday morning. It was my first time riding Roman, and I was ecstatic. After my lesson, Silver's owner was nice enough to let me ride him, and I felt comfortable enough to pop over some fences. Shout out to Izz for filming me! I'm also wearing the pair of Buckwild Breeches that I won through Dressage Hub's 12 Days of Awesomeness. They are actually awesome!

1. WithChic Cable Knit Sweater      withchic.com 2. The North Face Caroluna Crop Jacket      moosejaw.com 3. Mondoni Kendal Field Boot      divoza.com 4. Style Co Skinny Knob Buckle Belt      macys.com 5. Burberry Classic Cashmere Scarf      us.burberry.com 6. Mattes Sheepskin Half Pad      spoilthorse.co.uk 7. Ovation® Sync Helmet      ridingwarehouse.com 8. Back on Track Saddle Pad      smartpakequine.com 9. Ogilvy Dressage Profile Pad      smartpakequine.com 10. SSG Fleece Lined Winter Gripper Gloves      smartpakequine.com 11. Buckwild Tan Fox Breech      buckwildbreeches.com 12. Mattes Correction Half Pad      doversaddlery.com 13. Pessoa A/O Saddle (?)      smartpakequine.com 14. Stubben Roxane Dressage Saddle     no longer available (but check e...

While everyone else is doing their yearly reviews, I'm going to focus on what really matters: stuff. I've tried very hard to be good this year, despite the hand that was dealt to me by the universe. I've kept a Wishlist on this blog for a while, but those are typically things that I plan to get for myself. They also tend to be more practical items. The Christmas List is something different. This year, in an effort to remain humble, I've kept my list fairly simple. 1. $3,000,000,000 in cash, sans tax I feel like this one goes without needing a reason. There's so much I could do with $3 billion, like disappear completely from my life and have no need to make an appearance ever again. 2. An import, or 12 I'm but a sad child who just wants my own horse. Or Game Over, tbh, cause he's precious 3. Custom Dressage saddle I bought the jumping saddle plus fittings. Someone has to give me a break on this one. 4. A custom built home for my fish, Rembran...

Courtesy of L , as usual. Does your horse need shoes? I don't currently own a horse, but most of the ones I've known wore shoes. Baby had fronts, and so did Music. Max has fronts in the winter when he fox hunts, but his owner pulls them in the summer. What do you think of the barefoot vs shoes debate? Personally, I'd love to see every horse barefoot, but I understand that there are circumstances where a horse is going to need shoes. In the case where competition is the reason, I think we just need to do better work at creating effective, safe hoof boots. Until then, shoes and studs. Miss J's Romeo and his nakey hoofers Favorite season for riding? Summer. Call me crazy, but I like the warmth, and I sneeze less. How many shows do you think you’ve gone to? Too many, lol. Whether I'm helping or showing or both, I've been to a decent amount. Missing this ring and Karl right about now Do you consider yourself a good rider? Eh, not really, b...

1. Monogrammed Gingham Pullover     etsy.com/southernprepboutique 2. Mondoni Kingston tallboots      divoza.com 3. Tekna CLUB Saddle      equestriancollections.com 4. Wilker's Hunter/Jumper Schooling Show Saddle Pad      shop.wilkers.com 5. Mattes Correction Half Pad      doversaddlery.com 6. Hermes Reversible H Belt      therealreal.com 7. Shire's Oakland Side-Zip Show Breech      griffinbrook.com 8. Charles Owen V8 Helmet      charlesowen.co.uk

Friday marked three semesters completed on the eq team. For our last lesson of this semester, I was put on Boomer, which was shocking to say the least. Honestly, Carlos was a bit of a shocker too, considering he's quite forward, and I hadn't ridden in a while. I'm planning on being in a regular lesson schedule over winter break with Miss El, and ideally that'll start next week. We'll see. Maybe K will let me ride Artec Boomer was his usual self, always a doll to hack. Like Carlos, he get's a bit anxious when you pick up the reins, so we worked on that a bit. He had good transitions and responded well when I went to pick him up in his canter work. That proved to be useful once we got into the jumping portion of the lesson. We started with the small filler that we usually do. There was only one fence in the arena located on the quarter line somewhere between B and P. We started by trotting the long approach twice, then we cantered. Boom Boom was awesome...

So I had (technically) my first (kinda) real, architectural review yesterday. It came at the end of a looooong week. To be quite honest, that week is still trudging on. The only reason I have time to blog right now is because the program I need to use for my next assignment is downloading. Palazzo Gondi, y'all But, enough with that. Our final for this class was a two part project. The first part was completed (more or less) before Thanksgiving, after which we had three weeks to complete part two. When I turned in my first part, my TA made a lot of comments, very few of which were positive. After a semester of trying really hard to impress her, I was kinda bummed, especially since my assignments from the past two weeks were high quality. I worked on it for a week and brought in a couple of half done iterations. We picked one that represented the space better and would ultimately work better for the final project. The general concept is a pool room over a Buddhist temple ...

The Holocaust Museum - available for purchase

What do you do when you haven't ridden in three weeks, have barely jumped over 18" in a year and a half, and are known to be afraid of rolltops? My leg is actually in the right place, I swear Jump rolltops, of course. Coach let us jump the rolltop in our lesson last Friday. The ring was flooded by most of the jumps . . . except this one. It's not that big, just around 2'0", but it's big for me. We also had another fence on blocks that was also 2'0". Our attempts weren't nearly as graceful. Chipped in, and my leg decided it was done with me Carlos was shockingly complacent for a green bean. He walked and trot quite fine, and I was able to work on a frame. The canter wasn't bad, but it required some micro managing and compromises in my position to keep him together. He got antsy when I picked up the reins to gather him, but after a few times of picking up, dropping, picking up, doing something, keeping contact, doing nothing, yadda...

So, I went for a run last night, and my phone was near dead, so I opted to use my iPod instead for music. One thing led to another, and I started looking through my gallery, digging up some old photos and videos (some of which I posted early on with this blog), including some from my first show season. Let's just say I've always been bitter about having to ride a horse before noon. Short, cold, tired, AND bitter Twix w/ her old owner Baby in her short stirrup mode Still short stirrup, but looking real good Sometimes Duke went fast I also used to take pictures during lesson weekends, too. Two full days at the barn every other week (sometimes  every  week) from 10am to 4pm on Saturdays and noon to 4pm on Sundays. I'm a barn rat at heart, and I hate being an adult and having to do adult things because I get minimal barn time. Chess/Chester/Chesapeake Fish/Fisher/Fish Face Splash (he had no nicknames :/) Todd/Toddy/Toddster/Mr Todd Th...