♣Ambitious♣

Several trainers would be happy to know that the purple breeches are RETIRED It's been a while since I've delved into my fashion tastes. Not a purposeful move, but ever since Polyvore dissolved, I haven't felt particularly motivated. I'm also not super keen on using the copycat platforms because if they too dissolve, then I'll be left with near empty posts, like all of my Fashion Thursday ones are now. Curse you, internet! But anyways, it's easy to see that my style has changed a lot since starting this blog. So much so, that I even purged my old fashion board on Pinterest to scrub clean any remnants of my "live, laugh, love" era. So what era am I in now? Thrifting & Drop Shipping. Which, yeah, are inherently opposites. I have found some cool, good quality items on Aliexpress (and some complete duds), and I scrounge Facebook Marketplace almost daily (mostly for furniture, sometimes for tack too). Right now, I'm in the market for a wide noseband...

Ladies, gentlemen, and those who know better . . . we've got a hack winner The new 'stang has been here for a solid four weeks. His progress is both exciting and freaking adorable. Have I mentioned how stinking cute he is??? The name game is ongoing. Right now, the group is stuck between Alejandro, Ranger, and Agave. I'm very much team Agave. Alejandro is way too machismo , and Ranger feels too potato bread. I don't really have a say as he's, uhhhh, very much not my horse. I thought about just mashing the name together for blog purposes, but then that'd be awful to type. I'm going with Agave. Maybe if I say it enough, I can manifest the group into agreeing with me?? We'll see . . . This but with that Instagram audio that's like "Hi, yes, I placed an order for love and affection." The biggest thing with him over the past couple of weeks was 1) establishing basic control and 2) finding him a turnout group because the stall situation is very m...

According to Fuego, this tiny 12" fence needed maximum effort So, remember what I said about Fuego and I not being ready for tight turns yet? Well, I guess we are now, lol. I've also officially chosen his nickname: Eggo. For some reason, in my brain, I always say his name as Fuegoweggo. Wish I could explain, but I can't. Anyways, Eggo is short and cute enough and will suffice until I inevitably pick something else. Trainer T's back to back lessons have had a little bit of overlap lately. When that happens, she informed me to go ahead and start warming up. My lesson was a semi-private with V, and we had maybe five minutes or so on our own before Trainer T joined us. I really really really like hacking Fuego. There's never been any horse before that I've envisioned so much success with when it comes to Dressage . . . which probably sounds weird considering I rode with a Dressage trainer for years. But, I don't know, I just feel like I'm finding new butto...

So, for clarity, I'm just coming back from a quick trip to Los Angeles. I'm notoriously bad a preparing for vacations. Last minute packing meant that 1) I didn't schedule any posts for this week, and 2) the one post that I did schedule for last week went up with no pictures. Oops . . . Back in January, I was attending the monthly fireside chat with Young Black Equestrians. One of the attendees mentioned that there was a mustang adoption event coming to Okeechobee in late February. Now, I'm certainly not in a position to buy a horse right now, even if the mustangs go as cheap as $25. Despite that, it seemed like a cool event to attend. I texted my girlfriend almost immediately. Spoiler alert: she didn't get me a horse either :( I let Trainer T know in passing and figured she might want to go just out of curiosity. Word got around, and the group of adult women in my trainer's program were all interested in attending. Let me rewind for a moment though. The first ti...

Let's do a little Fuego deep dive. His JC name is A Little Banged Up  (2014, Ch, G), which is appropriate considering not only his recent splint but also his tendency to show up every day with a new scratch or bite or tear or something. It should go without saying that his JC name will not be his show name. His sire is Majesticperfection and dam is Tick Tick Boom. Just a whole family of . . . wonderful names. Majesticperfection was a 2006 model with a limited but successful career on the track. He was purchased for $370k by Padua Stables in 2008 and had six starts total with five wins. Apparently, he even set a track record in 2010 at the Iowa Sprint. He retired to stud at Airdrie in 2018 and then was sold to Haras Rapetti to continue his career in Uraguay. Brereton C. Jones of Airdrie Stud  had this to say  about Majesticperfection: We’ve long subscribed to the belief that brilliance is what makes most sires, and Majesticperfection was an absolutely brilliant raceh...

Once it was settled that Fuego needed a little breaky break, I had another lesson on Destello. He was in a quick beginner lesson before I got on him, so our warm-up was quick. Trainer T had the same general comments as last time: our flatwork is good, we're right there with each other, he's naturally behind the leg and we can continue to work on that. When I first got on him, I decided to go for a stretchy walk and trot to start with. Trainer T had me keep the long rein through the canter and as we were jumping to encourage him to move forward. One of the other trainers set up a gymnastic in the middle of the arena which used half of the fences we have available. It was also loooonngg. It was three single fences with one stride in between then, like, six strides to a final oxer. And that's six slow Destello strides. One time, we did it in five strides. I also did it this past week on Fuego in three strides . . . to each their own. We started with it as poles on the ground a...

Some raws from Wellington So, did it work? The logical side of me wants to say it was inconclusive. My ego wants to say yes. My therapist says that I overthink things. So what do y'all think? It doesn't seem like my last lesson on Fuego was a fair evaluation of the theory. If this was weight lifting, you don't have to worry about the weights having a mood swing. It's the same constant day-to-day and puts your skills to the same test no matter what. Horses on the other hand? Batshit. Absolutely ludicrous. They'll make you look like a pro one day and a crackhead the next. Only reason I'm leaning towards the exercise working is because of my muscle memory. When you're at this long enough, you know when things feel wrong. I know when my back and hips are too tight. I know when my knee is pinching and blocking the shoulder. For many years, my form would deteriorate and I would deactivate my core when a horse became more squirrely. It would cause me to start posti...

Very happy with the length of this walk, but paying close attention to his neck muscles After our last lesson, I heavily debated what I wanted to do with Fuego for our hack ride that week. Should I just go bareback? Should I push and continue to collect data? Maybe do a Dressage ride but super easy? I decided to just do our normal Dressage ride. Because he gave me some nice movements (forward trot, bouncy canter), I wanted to keep nurturing that skillset. Confidence partially comes from building the right muscles and feeling like you can support yourself through difficult physical activities. I know I've felt a helluva lot more secure in the saddle now that my fitness is coming together. And truthfully, he's also become more consistent now that I've started asking him to move out. I actually noticed when I first started riding him that he is sensitive over his back. He used to react a lot more while grooming, but it is now miles better. I like to imagine that asking him to ...