In case you were curious

I didn't forget about the blog I just haven't had a lot to blog about lately due to this:

That would be Buck's hoof in a diaper/duct tape boot because of an ABSCESS!!!  Last Friday morning when I went out to feed him he walked up to me so "head bobbing" lame he was basically on three legs.  I cleaned out his hooves (I thought maybe he pulled a shoe or something) and found a hole deep enough I could stick the end of the hoof pick into it.  Needless to say for the last week I've been doing this to his hoof every day.  

Now there's nothing coming out of the hole anymore and he seems completely sound again.  Tomorrow I think I'm gonna ride him and see how he does, hopefully he stays sound and I don't see the abscess come bursting out of his coronary band.  

Three day vacation after a horse show

Makes my pony a very lazy man.  Plus, I think it made him stiff since he was having a hard time getting going today.  I might need to remember, at a minimum, to get him out of the paddock and hand walk him or something if I'm going to give him a few days off from now on.

Look how vigilant he is LOL!

Despite the obvious stiffness (possible soreness, must keep watch over him for the next few days) he did seem to work out of it and was EXTREMELY well behaved.  I think the long "trail rides" from the trailer to the jumping arena last weekend helped expose him to the great outdoors even more then I had in the past.  Today he was like riding an experienced trail horse.  Again, it could just be because he was some what off today but he really seemed to be enjoying himself.  It makes me think it would be a good idea to go on more trail rides with him every once in a while, which definitely wouldn't hurt my feelings one bit!

MOOOOOOOOOO!!!!  I'm not really sure what this is about...

The only problem I seem to be having as of late is getting the left lead on the first time around.  Definitely could be my fault though since I feel like I'm some what off balance in that direction.  To get him to take the correct lead to the left I have to almost completely lose contact with him and let him figure it out on his own, which leads me to think it's something I'm doing wrong but I can't put my finger on it.  Any suggestions???

Doing what he does best!

Don't know what it's been like for the rest of the states (or other countries for that matter) but we've had lots of rain recently.  In fact, it's rained almost every day since last Saturday.  Been kind of nice since I really thought everything was going to die, but it's a little rough getting the entire summer's worth of rain in a week!  Upside, the grass is green again and as you can see above, Buck is VERY happy about this!

Whoops

I went to Queeny Park yesterday for their Mini Event.  For those of you who are not from Missouri, Queeny Park is this giant county park in St. Louis which also has an amazing cross country venue.  After being back in lessons for a short while I decided it was time to see what Buck was capable of.  He'd been jumping like a champ at home and in lessons and really seemed to love it.

It has been raining here basically non-stop since Friday morning and Sunday there was no change until about noon.  The dressage arenas were set up on the top of a hill in a field so the middle of the arena was a little more crowned then the edges and grass + mud made the arena slick as heck!  Our dressage test went terribly, not so much because myself or Buck did anything majorly wrong, but mostly because he was slipping and sliding all over the place which in turn made him want to be a little... "playful" (judges words not mine lol!)  Here's the video (my mom took it so excuse the lack of the entire right side of the arena!):

After Dressage we went to check out the cross country and stadium jumping since my stadium jumping time wasn't for another hour and a half.  I should have known this was not going to end well but the rain had stopped and I really wanted to check it out since I had never been to Queeny Park before.  My stadium jumping time was 1:52 and when we got done watching others do the course and "walking" the cross country (we could only check out the jumps not actually walk jump to jump) it was about 1.  We took a golf cart back to the trailer because it was a half hour walk to the jumping courses from the parking lot (didn't realize this until it was too late).  I tacked up and started the trek back to the stadium jumping arena.  I was LATE!  My trainer had beaten me up there and asked the people at the ring what they were on (because there was no announcer down where the trailers were parked) and they told her they were still on my division.  However, when I got up there (about 5 minutes after her) they informed us they had been waiting on my for 20 minutes and moved on to the next division!  Honestly, I think they're times were messed up because no one was going in the order they were suppose to and multiple people had scratched because of the weather.  Unfortunately we were eliminated because of this *insert sad face here*.  

Since I was eliminated I didn't really know what to do, Buck was kind of acting like a fool because people were jumping all around him in the warm up and I just wanted to get away from there.  The lady at the stadium ring said if I got to the start box on time (my cross country was at 2:08 and it was 2:05) I would be able to run through the course if I wanted to.  I decided some cross country schooling is better than none so we hurried over, made it with about 30 seconds to spare.  I also made the executive decision to canter between the jumps and trot them just because I wanted him to listen to me, when he gallops he gets a little out of control (thus the riding cross country in a kimberwick).  I'm posting this as well, at the beginning it's very far away because my mom couldn't zoom in anymore, but you get the idea.  It was a great course and if I had not already been eliminated it would have been a blast to gallop!

So that was our fun weekend with a mini event and I can't WAIT to go out again.  Plus, lesson learned on paying attention to the right times.  My trainer placed 1st and 4th in her division on two 4 year old Trakehners from New Spring Farm so all in all I think it was a good day.

As fellow equestrians I'm sure you will understand my excitement in this.  I got to go shopping... for my HORSE today!  It wasn't a big deal, I purchased a pair of black SSG gloves (very nice by the way, I rode with them this afternoon), a nice leather halter (I thought Buck would like to look handsome when he goes for trips off the farm), and a new set of stirrup leathers for my jumping saddle (let's just say the others were not jumping safe anymore).

The one purchase which REALLY excited me was this:

A Charles Owen JR8 helmet!!!!  Ok, maybe not a big deal to anyone else, but to me, after using the same helmet I've had since I was I dunno... 10 years old, it's a HUGE deal!  I've always had this paranoia in the back of my mind about my current helmet not being able to hold up to a fall anymore, because of it's age.  I'm not really sure what the life expectance is for a riding helmet, it's never been dropped or anything, but it is 17 years old.  I'm thinking if nothing else, this new helmet will have the "modern" technology my current helmet lacks and, hopefully, will put my mind at ease.  Plus, it was specifically fitted to me (I have a huge head, 7 1/4!!!).  My current helmet was fitted to my 10 year old head and therefore, is a little bit TOO small and feels like it's squeezing my brain!

Rode my pony boy tonight, he was perfect.  I can't wait until we get our arena finished so I have a flat place to work.  I've decided currently there is not a single flat stop on my property for us to work.  It's awesome for hill work (Buck has a weak right stifle) but makes flatwork or anything else virtually impossible.  My husband got a phone number for a guy who does work with a bulldozer so I'm hoping he gets ahold of the guy and he can help us out, for a reasonable price of course!

I've pretty much decided I'm terrible at blogging.  It's fun, I like writing... when I remember (or have the time for that matter)!  I'm sorry for those who were actually nice enough to follow my blog, and also for those who occasionally take the time to actually look at it, I'm a slacker!

It's been over a month since my last post and since then I've gotten a job, started training with a different trainer (still at Cheryl's facility but with her assistant trainer Emily), and oh there was that big deal... the Olympics!

Photo from NBCOlympics.com

If you have been paying attention at all you already know the results and a big Congratulation goes out to all who medaled in the 2012 Olympics.  Obviously eventing was what I watched the most of and really, I'm proud of our US team, even though they didn't place they still came in 7th which isn't bad at all considering some of the things that happened to them (poor Boyd and Otis having to scratch due to injury in their first Olympic Games).

For those of you who haven't been able to watch any of the equestrian portion you can go on NBCOlympics.com and watch entire event replays (so long as you have a television subscription which shows their channels) and I won't spoil the rest since those who watch know what happened and those who haven't should DEFINITELY watch!

Back to me (ha I'm sure you'd rather hear more Olympic talk!), I FINALLY got a full time job (after a couple of months of panic because I wasn't sure we'd be able to pay our bills at the end of the month!).  Hopefully now my husband and I can pay all our bills AND we'll have some money left for fun stuff (which for me is always horse stuff).  It's with the Missouri Department of Social Services and I'm not really sure what else I can say about it since there's some confidentiality paperwork I had to sign but I'll just tell you I'm pretty excited.  It's in the evenings from 4PM to midnight which gives me plenty of time to still work with my horse and hopefully go to some different events!  The unfortunate side, however, is my husband does not get off work until 4:30 in the afternoon which means he doesn't get home until around 5:30.  I'll already be at work every day before he gets home except for the one day a week I work 9AM to 5PM and the two days I have off :-(

Also, started riding with Emily, Cheryl's assistant trainer.  It's been fun, she's very talented and makes everything so easy for me to understand and Buck is doing pretty great already.  We're still in the process of building an arena at home so there is not a whole lot of great places to ride.  We're doing a lot of hill work though which is great because Buck has got pretty weak stifles, more specifically the right one.  I'm hoping we get to go to Queeny Park in St. Louis at the beginning of September for their one day mini event (all three phases wrapped up in one day) and test the waters a bit...

Rode Buck this afternoon and he was great, a little distracted since I do not have a structured place to work him, but we walked and trotted some hills and that really helped him to focus a little more.. or maybe it just made him tired and he didn't care what else was going on anymore haha!  He's so dull to my leg I really think I need to start doing some sort of exercises to build up the strength in my leg.  He doesn't hardly pay any attention to me until I get my leg out of position and goose him with my heel... bad for me because I already have a poor leg position as it is!  I was playing with fate after a bit, a friend of my husband's showed up, started up a chainsaw and proceeded to cut down the huge trees in behind my house (the area we've designated for the new arena)... I decided he had been good for the 30 minutes I was on him and it would probably be best if we quit while we were ahead and before I ended up on my head!

From now on I promise to TRY and keep up with this blog!  What's the point in having it if you don't write!!  Oh and I'll try and remember to get some pictures at the horse show to post, since any other time I'm riding Buck there's no one around with a camera (or my husband is too busy doing other things haha!).

Oh and I almost forgot, I was looking at a pair of tall dress boots and I was wondering if anyone who reads this has used TuffRider Ladies Baroque Dress Boots?  They're not too expensive and they look pretty decent but I am having a difficult time finding any consumer reviews about them.  If you've had them please, let me know what you thought!

Happy Hunting... My Rear!

I was so excited the day I graduated from Stephens.  I thought, "now I will finally be able to ride more, I'll get a full time 8 to 5 Monday through Friday job and have the entire weekends to myself!"  WRONG!!!!

Now it's almost July, I've had one interview and never got a return phone call from it and I just found out today I didn't even get an interview for a position change in a department I've worked in for the last two years!

I've applied for probably ten State jobs and haven't heard anything back from any of them and I'm going in two days to sit down for like five hours to take some crazy required written exams for three of those jobs.

If you can't tell by now I'm REALLY frustrated.  I guess if I wasn't tied to this area it would be easier to find a job but we've bought a house and my husband already has a career which he can't just pick up and leave from.

So now I'm stuck working full time hours for part time pay at a department that doesn't even want to give me a chance to change positions because I apparently had a bad interview over a year ago as well as working part time at another department but only being able to work the hours no one else wants or when someone calls in sick or wants a vacation day.  Which includes working over nights, working double shifts (both jobs in the same day), and working almost every weekend.

I guess the only upside to the situation is I don't have to go back to class, downside... I'm afraid we're going to lose everything!  Obviously these part time jobs do not pay enough to cover everything and with buying a new house and what not the extra bills are really starting to freak me out.  The stress is mounting and I'm just not sure what to do about all of it now....  HELP!!!

Remember

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!!  I would just like to say thank you to all the men and women who have served in our armed forces and remind everyone to think a soldier... Today is not just about BBQs and partying!

Kinda disappointed myself today.  I have a tendency to be a slacker when it comes to getting show/clinic entries sent in early, typically I wait until the last day I can send them off... bad habit.  It finally caught up with me today when I emailed about the Greg Best clinic which is coming to my area in a couple of weeks and found out it was full already :-(  Sad day, him and Gem Twist were one of my favorite pairs when I was growing up, I even have the Gem Twist Bryer horse still somewhere!!

Lesson learned, today I filled out all the entry blanks for shows and clinics I wanted to go to in the near future so I would make sure and have them done and ready to go.

On another note, we're finally getting some rain in the area.  I don't think it's rained here for almost a month now!  This beautiful view of the clouds as I went home from work tonight just gave me this feeling of how thankful I really am for the freedoms we all take for granted every day which are defended by those who serve in our military...

 

 

Recreational Riding

Some times I forget how much fun it can be just to get on your horse and go ride with no real intention of accomplishing something.  We've recently moved, bought a new house, etc., and I have not really had a lot of time to ride Buck since we moved just because I have been so busy (moving, graduating college, work, etc.).  Today I decided it would be a good idea to go out and just ride around a bit to check things out.  I haven't found a place to actually school him but it was fun to just go on a mini trail ride.  He was a little confused I think with the lack of structure and was distracted by all the new things.

The property has 18.5 acres, most of which is wooded, but there is a field up on the back of the property, which is where I took Buck today.  It kind of blew my mind for a minute to think I actually owned this property (first home purchase!!).  It has great grass, great views, and it is so peaceful and secluded.
There are woods on the side towards the house and along another side, 2 pastures on the other sides, one with cows (Buck was amazed by them by the way... definitely not going to be introducing him to the life of a working cow horse ANY time soon!), and the other had the neighbors 3 horses which Buck liked because they kind of keep him company on the other side of the fence.

We did have a bit of an interesting ride though, pretty scenery aside.  Buck has not been rode in a couple of weeks and he was definitely "feeling his oats".  First there was the failed attempts at rearing and bucking while we were riding (I'm just lucky he hasn't realized he IS capable of bucking while I'm riding), then there were the random unintentional side passes and awkward crooked circles, and it all culminated into him wanting to run back to the barn as fast as he could.  I decided I would get off and walk him down to the barn, but when I got of he jumped backwards away from me, fell down in the process, jumped back up and ran himself back down to the barn.  Interesting is a nice way of putting it I guess.  No injuries to horse or rider... except maybe for both ending up with bruised egos.  Note to self... Buck is no longer allowed to have more than a couple of days off at any time!  Time off = wild mustang!!!

I'll Have Another... Triple Crown Please!!

Can I just say how EXCITED I am about horse racing right now!!!  Not usually a race horse groupie but today I think I've become one... not to mention I'm a sucker for big beautiful chestnuts **cough cough Buck cough cough**

This gorgeous colt was a surprise from the beginning for race fans, with a purchase price of only $35,000 the colt didn't really catch fans attention (Kentucky Derby odds made him the  15-1 long shot) but his new owner thought the colt had amazing potential.  Great judge of horses in my book!!!  After his win today in the Preakness, the colt has a lifetime earning now of $2.6 million dollars, which means he's paid for himself almost 75 times now (not including of course feeding, training, vetting, etc)!!!

So, it has been 34 years now since the last Triple Crown Winner (Affirmed in 1978) and Big Brown was the last one to come as close as I'll Have Another.  This colt ran a spectacular race at the Preakness coming back from about 3.5 lengths off the pace in 4th to over taking Bodemeister in an awesome photo finish (pictured above)!  It was epic, almost as much fun as watching the old Secretariat races (I say almost because let's face it, those are by far the BEST races ever run in the Triple Crown).

I don't know about you guys but I think I'm gonna put my money on this gorgeous colt for the Belmont.  I'm really hoping to see a Triple Crown win in my lifetime!

From Herd Bound to Herd... Less?

After some consideration and flip-flopping back and forth, I decided the only way I'm going to get anything done with Buck is to keep him by himself.  So, I put Sweetie up for sale, expecting to get poor responses.  She's 22 and I didn't really think I would actually get her sold, but surprisingly enough, a family contacted me and basically bought her the day they came and looked at her.  

Now Buck is the only horse I own and I'm feeling kinda guilty for a couple of reasons.  First, because I always feel bad about making a horse live by themselves, but Buck can't seem to keep himself together when there is another horse in the pasture.  Secondly, my mom and I have had Sweetie for over 10 years now.  I've run local barrel shows with her, National Barrel Horse Association shows (including the State and World show), I've run the intercollegiate rodeo circuit and the state rodeo circuit with her.  So now I'm feeling really bad about finding her a new home, even though the people are really nice and their 13-year-old daughter is pretty much in love with her.

Guilt aside though, I think I've solved the majority of my problem with Buck by finding Sweetie a new home.  We recently moved into a new house so the day the new family came to pick up Sweetie we moved Buck at the same time to distract him from his missing pasture mate.  It worked!  When I got him to the new house he hoped out of the trailer, walked beside me like a perfect gentleman, and acted like a complete puppy dog the entire time!  He was the horse I remembered loving when I saw him at the track, completely calm and care free.  Hopefully this new found... um.... old Buck is here to stay, it's been four days so far haha!

Rolex Day One - Dressage

Day one is over and the Top 10 standings as of today are as follows:

1st - Boyd Martin and Remington XXV with a 45.3

2nd - Karen O'Conner and Veronica with a 47.8

3rd - Andrew Nicholson and Calico Joe with a 48.7

4th - Becky Holder and Courageous Comet (My Fav) with a 48.8

5th - Doug Payne and Running Order with a 50.2

6th - Laine Ashker and Anthony Patch with a 51.0

7th - Will Coleman and Twizzel with a 51.3

8th - Marilyn Little and RF Rovano Rex with a 53.7

9th - Will Faudree and Andromaque with a 54.7

10th - James Alliston and Jumbo's Jake with a 55.0

I was kind of curious as to what happened with Jonathan Paget and Clifton Promise but then I realized they did not go until tomorrow so no worries for those in New Zealand rooting for the pair.. I'm just dumb and wasn't paying attention to the ride times :-D

Herd Bound

Today the "twins" (where you see one you see the other) went to have their feet done.  I haven't been putting shoes on them since I haven't really been riding much lately (i.e not at all) and Sweetie's feet were a hot mess.

They had an appointment at 8 o'clock this morning so I was smart and planned ahead, hooking up the truck and trailer the night before, then I realized I had forgotten to clean the trailer out after the clinic (whoops) it was dark so the cleaning would have to wait until the morning.  Today I was up at 6, fed the elephants disguised as horses (Buck eats as much as an elephant anyway) and backed the trailer down the lane along side the pasture to clean it out.  It's easier just to back it up and throw the manure over the fence out in the pasture than lugging around a wheel barrow.

At the sight of the trailer you would have thought someone had electrocuted the horses.  They left their breakfasts to go run around the pasture like a couple of wild mustangs who were seeing people for the fist time... it was ridiculous.  I was glad at that moment I got up extra early, planning ahead for silly horse behaviors.  I finished cleaning out the trailer then pulled back up and prepared it for the loading of crazy horses.

I let them act like their world was coming to an end and went inside to eat my own breakfast.  They were back up eating as if nothing had happened by the time I was done and I clipped a lead rope on Sweetie before she realized what was going on which made Buck even easier to catch since he will do anything she does (monkey see...).

Walking two horses alone is always a feet of acrobatic excellence if you ask me, especially when you have one trotting and tossing their head (Sweetie) and the other one you're practically dragging because he's lazy (Buck).  Tied Buck to the trailer, loaded Sweetie first which caused panic for a hot minute before Buck realized he was going to.  I have to say, he loaded the best I have ever had him load up with her in the trailer already.  Sweetie on the other hand, always loads well but when I put him in the trailer she struck out with one of her front legs and started doing the "mare in heat" bull (She's 22 years old!!).  I guess if I could just take them every where I needed to go with Buck together, all would be perfect in the world...

The trip to the farrier and back took maybe 45 minutes, I really wish I had found a farrier who makes house calls but he's really great and doesn't cost much ($36 to have both horses trimmed).  We played the same game as previous with getting in and back out of the trailer once we got home and then when I turned them lose in the pasture Sweetie wanted to run around and act all silly... Buck decided finishing his previously forgotten breakfast was a much better idea (I think there might be a brain in that head of his yet!).

Just silly horse moments I'm sure we have all had in common at some point in time lol!

Wow

I feel like my posts almost always have something tragic going on in them.  Today is going to be no different unfortunately.  Early this morning the eventing world lost an amazing competitor, Amy Tryon.   She died in her sleep today and as far as I can tell there has been no information out about the cause of death.

I'm sure anyone who follows eventing will remember Amy who recently competed on Poggio II (in the photo), the former race and trail horse, at the Galway Downs International Horse trials two weeks ago.  For those who do not she has also represented the United States in two Olympic Games and two World Equestrian Games, with team gold at the World Games in Jerez in 2002 and a team bronze from the Athens Olympics.  She was also named Eventing Horseman of the Year in 2006 by The Chronicle of the Horse.  Amy was also a firefighter for several years.  Besides being an amazing competitor she was also a mentor and trainer for several up and coming talented students and horses.

It is with a heavy heart we say goodbye to yet another great competitor and champion for our sport.  My thoughts and prayers go out to her friends and family through such a difficult time.

LMFAO

I really felt like this needed to be shared with those who have not come across it on YouTube yet.  This man is brilliant and I am a huge fan!  This freestyle won him the freestyle Dressage Under The Stars for 2012 by the way.

Clinic Day

I took Buck to a dressage clinic today about an hour from where we live and I just have to say, he was phenomenal during the clinic.  I didn't get any pictures or videos unfortunately (I'll explain why the camera was forgotten in a minute), the day started out horribly.

I didn't ride until 1:30pm but I wanted to make sure I got up in time to pull his mane and make him semi-sort-of presentable.  He's pasture bound now most of the time due to the lack of stalls (there's a barn but the horses can go in and out as they want right now).  It has been raining and nasty off and on all week long (yesterday was a particularly gorgeous day though, go figure).  and he was a MUDDY mess.

I woke up at 8:30, already running behind and went out to feed and work on his mane while he was eating.  It was FREEZING this morning, a whopping 45 degrees!  On top of that there was a steady rain coming down and he was a God awful muddy mess. His mane was easy it just needed a little tidying but the rest of him was pretty nasty.  I was lucky he had blankets on so his whole body wasn't covered in mud but his neck and head took a unbelievable amount of elbow grease to clean and I resorted to spraying his legs off with the hose because I was pretty sure there was no way I was going to just brush that off.

Shawn hooked the truck and trailer up and we were ready to start loading him at about 10:30, I figured he'd just get in and I could run in, change my clothes and we could go... WRONG!

I may have forgotten to mention since the accident with Dolly my mom gave me her retired barrel horse, Sweetie (21 years old) to be Buck's pasture buddy.  She was very upset he was leaving, trotting back and forth and calling out to him.  I can't wait until we get a barn where I can put her in a stall so I don't have to worry about her while we're gone.

Because she was freaking out he started freaking out and was rearing up on the end of the lead rope and would NOT get in the trailer, at this point it had gone from a steady rain to a pouring rain by the way.  He did finally get in and then started bouncing up and down and kicking in the trailer!!

I raced inside and changed my clothes, forgetting my cellphone, clinic application and coggins results (and the previously mentioned camera) in the process so when Shawn went in to change he had to grab all of it for me.  It only took him 5 to 10 minutes but it felt like forever because I stood out in the rain making sure Buck didn't do something crazy while we were waiting to leave and I was getting soaked through (next time I should remember to wear jeans and just change into my breeches once I get where I'm going!).

We finally left and everything was cake from there, Sweetie had gotten over him leaving before we even pulled out and was back to eating her breakfast and stopped calling out to him and the trailer trip went on without a hitch.

He was perfect during the clinic (Claudia Misner was teaching) and she even got him to really bend on the circle in all three gaits which we were having considerable problems with (OTTB).  I also noticed I sit kind of crooked on his back which could be due to me compensating for him being crooked (which only makes him MORE crooked) so I had to concentrate on straightening myself out.  Helped to make him A LOT straighter.  When he bent at the ribs he felt almost light and floating... it was incredible.  I can't wait to get back on him again.  I really wish I had pictures, he was working from the rear and looking amazing... I'm so excited!!  Also, it stopped raining long enough for me to get him tacked up, warmed up in the outdoor arena, through the clinic, and back in the trailer and headed home, it was amazing.  I'm so glad I didn't decide to back out because of the bad morning we were having.

Claudia was amazing and I highly recommend getting involved in one of her clinics if you should ever get the opportunity.

Barns & Clinics

So, the barn idea got scratched because the building the new house plan got scratched.  Yesterday we placed a bid on an already existing house with 7.5 acres, fenced for horses but no barn...  Hopefully we get the whole thing pretty cheap and can build a barn this summer after I graduate.

On another note, Claudia Misner clinic is this weekend and I've decided to take Buck to it on Sunday morning.  I figure even one day of getting him off the property for a while and riding some where new is good no matter what we're doing.  Hopefully I'll have some pictures and maybe even a video to post for you guys after the weekend.  Wish me luck!

Barn Plans

We have decided to build a barn!  For me this is sooooooooo exciting I just can't put it into words!!  I will show you the basic plans and then tell you how I'm going to change them to benefit, well, Buck for the most part haha!

So the first picture is the basic plan only I will be changing it some what.  I want to keep the 5 stalls on the left side since we're considering the possibilities of opening up to boarders (given that's feasible with such problems as liabilities, insurance, etc.) and lessons (kids only since I don't consider myself decent enough to teach anything but beginners and again after the considerations of liabilities).  I believe the aisle way being big enough to drive through is a great idea because I have every intention of putting hay lofts above the stalls with holes in the floor above each stall, that way you can just cut open a bale and drop hay down into the manger and not have to worry about throwing down bales, stacking, etc. 

On the right side of the barn I plan to remove the one random stall at the very end of the barn since that seems kind of silly and just making that a wash rack instead.  The storage space next to it has a roll up garage door on the outside and could be used to store a tractor or whatever else you might want.  Right next to that would be the tack room.  Which leaves me with a big open space I have not yet figured out what to do with.  Also, I'm trying to figure out where I could possibly add on an indoor arena some time in the (distant) future... maybe after I win the lottery or something.  The right side of the barn will be right up next to the drive way which goes back down to the house so it is not likely the blank space could be left as a possible connection spot for said indoor arena.  It would probably have to come down to taking out the top (well the top as far as the picture you're looking at is concerned) where one of the big sliding doors would be into the aisle way and putting the arena on that end of the barn, which would mean in order to drive through the barn you would have to drive through the arena either to go all the way through or back into the barn from the other end... I haven't really figured this part out yet but it will be a while before this matters I guess.

Obviously the roof in the basic plan is not high enough to accommodate a hay loft but my father owns a construction company and I'm sure he could help me draw up plans more specific to my ideal barn.

Finally, the other picture is what I would like my stall fronts to look like, I think those are simple enough and could be quite simple to build and set up... plus they look nice.  It should all turn out to look something similar to this:

Thoughts anyone or any good ideas you might have about making the perfect barn?  I'm so excited about the possibilities of building the barn I can't hardly wait!!!  I'm sure this idea will probably change a thousand times before we actually start building.

World Dressage Masters

They did it again!  81.383% in the Grand Prix and 83.700% in the Grand Prix Freestyle puts Steffen Peters and Ravel at the top of the 2012 World Dressage Masters in Palm Beach, FL!  I'm so glad they did it again, they are such an amazing team!  I found both videos from the Grand Prix (video 1) and Grand Prix Freestyle (video 2) should you like to watch their amazing tests :-)  Congratulations to Steffen and Ravel on another victory for the United States.

Palm Trees and Ocean Air

Wow sorry, been a little neglectful with the blog!

I've decided I want to move to Florida!  I know what you're thinking, "yeah, yeah, you and everyone else girl", but let's think about this for a minute...

1) Gorgeous weather 90% of the time, who wouldn't love that right? AND
2) Dressage HEAVEN!  Some of the best horse shows, clincs, etc., in the world are held in Florida.

For example, this week (starting January 26th) begins the 2012 World Dressage Masters, yet another 2012 World Cup and Olympic Qualifier and North America's only World Dressage Masters CDI5*.  I couldn't even imagine what it would be like to have the chance to go to something like that since Missouri isn't exactly known for dressage shows what so ever.  Let's face it, I live in the world of cowboys and rodeos... no Grand Prix or World Qualifiers in my future if I stay around here.

At the WDM, Totilas is expecting to be showing with his current rider, Matthias Alexander Rath, after their spectacular showing in Aachens in July and the German team silver medal at the European Championships, I'm sure this duo will be a highly anticipated attraction to all those in attendance.  I love Totilas, he is an amazing athlete, but with Steffen Peters competing on Ravel again to defend his 2011 championship and score of 80.87% in the Grand Prix, and the 2011 European Dressage Championship gold medal winning team from Great Britain (Charlotte Dujardin and Carl Hester, I feel like this championship is going to be a bit of a thriller for those fans of Totilas during his only public appearance while in North America.  Personally, I'm hoping Steffen and Ravel can repeat their amazing performance from last year.  This pair also won the Grand Prix and Grand Prix Freestyle at the 2010 WDM in Palm Beach.

I couldn't find a video of the actual CDI5* Grand Prix test from 2011 of Steffen and Ravel but I did find their CDI5* Grand Prix Freestyle which won them a score of 84.53% and the Grand Prix Freestyle division as well.

And They're Off...

Last semester of my undergraduate career started today (FINALLY)!  Upside, I think it's going to be an interesting semester and we started earlier so we can get out earlier (finals week is the first week in May).  Downside, it looks like it's going to be a rough semester with my senior research class along with all of the other projects, papers, tests, etc.  I think I'm going to do my senior research project on therapeutic riding and how it helps the kids confidence and self-esteem, I'm pretty excited about it actually.  I emailed the therapeutic riding center today to see if they needed volunteers for their spring session that way not only can I get surveys and information from the kids I could also help and watch them progress through the program.

Buck has been getting neglected the past couple of months as far as consistent riding is concerned and I was really hoping to get more riding done since spring will be here soon and I was really wanting to go to more horse shows this year, but I'm not sure if I see that happening at this point.  I'm not a big fan of riding when it's cold out (I know, I know, I need to suck it up if I'm going to actually accomplish something with Buck).  It's tough to get motivated to go outside when it's so nice and warm inside.  Maybe I should consider moving to Florida or something.

Kind of a random post I guess but it was on my mind so I figured what better to do with it than post it on here.  I really just can not wait for this semester to get over, to graduate, get a real job (hopefully a day job during the week) so I can have more time (and money) to start really focusing on Buck and competing and really make something out of this extremely talented Thoroughbred I've been blessed with.  Otherwise, I might as well put him up for sale and have him go to someone who is really going to utilize his talents and let's face it, that's NOT happening lol!

I think this semester is really going to test my time management skills and I'm a little bit freaked out about it.  Wish me luck! lol!