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.

New Years Resolutions & Contemplations

So, it occurred to me today as I was making up the new schedule for work for the month of January, 2011 is going to be over in 4 days!  Looking back on the entire year I can't say I really have too many regrets.  Some different things I've learned this year and the resolutions to go along with them (equestrian and otherwise):



1.  There comes a time when you get tired of trying to make everyone happy and you need to make yourself happy.  A time when you're done with the drama and find that the people who are important to you are the ones who you are important to.
There is definitely no reason to put up with drama.  I guess maybe it's because I'm older than the girls I go to school with (I'm 27) but I have found several times this year that I am really over drama.  I don't want to listen to it, I don't want to deal with it, and I certainly don't want to be around people who cause it.  Between working 3 jobs and a full load of classes, my horse, and my family I do NOT have time for friends with drama issues.  This year I vow to cut as much of that out of my life as I can... I don't want friends like that.


2.  Don't bother reserving a space in your heart for people who do not make an effort to stay.
Again, I have joined a couple of different groups over the last year with people in them who claim to be my friends but when it comes down to it I don't feel like I can really count on them for anything.  So one of my resolutions this year is to cut out the people in my life who aren't really friends at all and who cause more drama than they help


3.  If you want to fly, you have to give up things that weigh you down and doing something wrong ten times is more productive than doing nothing at all.  Every success has a path of failures behind it and every failure is one step closer on the path to success.
I'm sure by now this is starting to sound like some sappy life lessons sort of post but I would like this next year to be the year I really do something with Buck.  I think he deserves it for me to take him on to shows and really make something out of him, whether I keep him and continue to progress or sell him to someone who can really make something out of him.


4.  While you're busy looking for the perfect person, you will probably miss the imperfect person who can make you perfectly happy.... Relationships must be chosen wisely, it is better to be alone than in bad company.
I have found (I guess this goes along with 1 and 2) I do not have the time or the energy anymore to put up with drama and bad friends.  Also, my husband is my best friend and we were just married in March of 2011 and I can't imagine my life without him.  No resolution here except to keep a good thing going lol!


5.  Someone will always be better looking, smarter, or charming, but they will never be you.  Be proud of who you are, your knowledge, and your skills, it's what makes you an individual.
I have a hard time with this and I have learned this year more than years in the past to just be excepting of who I am.  The people who really matter in my life do not have to be impressed all the time and those that I feel need to be impressed, are not worth having around.  I am who I am and if people can't be happy with that then there is no reason for them to be in my life.


6.  Making progress involves taking risk.  Step up to that next level test, push yourself, push your horse.  You will not know how far you and your partner can go until you make that one bold move.
2012 I am hoping will be the year Buck and I really accomplish something.  I want to start riding more with Cheryl when she gets back from Florida.  I want to start going to more events, and I want to really move him along and see what he's got.  I think there's a lot of untapped potential in him and it would be a waste for me to leave him sitting around again for another year.


7.  It is alright to fall apart for a little while.  You don't always have to pretend to be strong.  It is healthy to shed a tear and as soon as you do, the sooner you can smile again (R.I.P Dolly and Casino).
I try to be the tough one all the time but this year more than most has shown me it's alright to cry, it's even beneficial.  With the death of Casino and then Dolly last month, I have learned that getting it out helps you grieve and recover faster than if you bottle your feelings up instead.


8.  You can't take things too personally.  Rarely do people do things because of you, they usually do things because of them.
I want to stop worrying about what people think so much.  I want to stop ruminating over the mistakes I make at work or in my personal life and for goodness sakes stop taking things so personal.  I am not too bad about it anymore, but I need to realize that just because my supervisor at works tells me I messed something up, it does not mean he's going to fire me the next time I mess up.... mistakes happen and it's ok.


9.  You end up regretting the things you did not do much more than the things you did do (please see #6).
I don't know if I've learned this in the last year but definitely over my life time.  I regret not joining the Air Force, I regret not going to one University and sticking to it from the beginning... blah blah blah.   In 2012 I want to stop questioning everything all the time and be more spontaneous.  I don't mean I want to make a bunch of stupid mistakes but I want to be able to look back at my life in another 30 or 40 years and not see a bunch of things I wish I had gotten to do when I was younger.


10.  Regardless of how messy your past has been, your future is still clean.  Don't start every day with the broken pieces of yesterday.  Every day is a fresh start.  Each day is a new beginning.  Every morning you wake up is the first day of the rest of your life.  Live like you're invincible, but love like there's no tomorrow.
I think this is just a general good rule to live by.  You never know when your last day will be, but you can't live your life waiting for the other shoe to drop either.  Get on with it!  Live your life vicariously through yourself and make it exactly the way you want it to be because no one is holding you back but you.  You want to ride at Rolex some day?  Get yourself in gear and run for it!  You are only waiting on yourself...

Pan-America Games

Not sure if anyone has been following the Pan-American Games this year but the United States CLEANED UP the medals this year!

The USET received Team Golds in Dressage, Jumping and Eventing as well as Individual Golds in Jumping (Cristine McCrea on Romantovich Take) and Dressage (Steffan Peters on Weltino's Magic)!  To make it even better the teams also received individual silvers in Dressage (Heather Anderson Blitz on Paragon), Jumping (Beezie Madden on Coral Reef Via Volo), and Eventing (Hannah Burnett on Harbour Pilot).  Along with Individual Bronze medals in Dressage (Marisa Festerling on Big Tyme and Eventing (Bruce Davidson Jr. on Foxwood High)!

All in all I would say October has been an incredible month for our favorite equestrians and a HUGE congratulations goes out to every one of the participants in the Pan-American games.  No matter your placing, at the end of the day it is a great honor to be a part of any of the teams which travelled to compete at Guadalajara this year.

The U.S teams have not just done well in equestrian events but in most every event they have competed in bringing home 92 gold medals, 79 silver medals, and 65 bronze medals, putting the U.S at the top of the medal table followed by Cuba (136 total medals) and Brazil (141 total medals).

Needless to say it's been a great month for all of my favorite sports teams.... USET gold medals, St. Louis Cardinals 11th World Series win, the Kansas City Chiefs upset the San Diego Chargers, and Mizzou upset 16th ranked Texas A&M this weekend.  I'd say the U.S and Missouri have had a great October.... can't wait to see what November has to bring!

Money Pains

Everyone knows horses = money... of course for some people that means people with horses HAVE money.  As those of us who actually have horses know it actually means people with horses are BROKE! 

I don't know what hay prices are where you come from (I know Texas and Oklahoma are having it rough this year) but I just spent $400 on 100 bales of lespedeza and prairie grass bales for my two horses.  That's not going to last me the whole winter and I'll probably have to get at least another 100 before the end of the winter.  What are hay prices like where you come from and what are you feeding?

Also, I can't remember if I wrote about this earlier but Buck broke his bridle after he decided it would be fun to try and do a back flip while we were riding, not a good idea!!  So I need to replace the reins on my snaffle bridle and I haven't really found that are worth anything that are less than $50.  So if you know of any good, black reins which are not going to break the bank hook me up!

I was also planning on purchasing a double bridle at some point in the near future.  I was looking through the Dressage Extensions magazine I received in the mail yesterday and here's kind of what I noticed on that front...

Cheapest Double Bridle = $189.95 (good news it comes with handstop reins for the snaffle and plain leather reins for the curb so you don't have to spend money on that part)

Cheapest Loose Ring Bradoon = $18.95 (not sure this is what I'm going to go with I just use a loose ring on a snaffle bridle I have now and it seemed like a good choice for this purpose)

Cheapest Curb = $39.95

So with all three of these things a new double bridle is going to set me back $248.85.  Don't get me wrong, I think for a double bridle that would be a heck of a deal and honestly, the cheapest bridle in the magazine was not the one I REALLY wanted (I really like the ShowTime Weymouth Bridle with the crank caveson which is $258.95 and you still have to buy the reins separate which range from $73.95 to $109.95... totaling $332.90 to $368.90!)  Guess it's gonna be a while before I invest in that bridle.  Good thing we're a long way from those levels yet!

Finally, my riding teacher is great, I love her to death, I just wish I lived closer to her.  I have been working and getting paid every month for the chores at the barn but she's getting ready to leave for the winter and go to FL (LUCKY!).  Anyway, I want to keep riding at the barn while she's gone so the idea is to bring my horse up one night and ride and do chores that night, leave him there the next day and do chores and take him home that night.  So basically I'll do two days of chores and he'll get to spend the night up there.  Good side is the barn is awesome!  Indoor arena, outdoor jumping arena, outdoor grass dressage arena and trails and cross country course all over the property.  Pretty much if I died this place would be heaven for me haha!  Not to mention it would solve my problem with his anxiety over watching Dolly while I'm trying to get some work done with him!

My only concern is there will be no money involved, just the trade of my horses stay for the work (which it only take like 20 minutes to feed during the winter because there's only like 6 horses at the barn and the owner makes my life SO easy... it's really the easiest barn job I've ever had).  It costs about $70.00 to fill up the truck right now (gas is $3.15) and it take me it's a half of a tank to get to the barn and home again (it's about an hour away).  So I guess I wonder if the cost of driving up there is worth the pay off. 

I can't afford to board him permanently I don't think (I think $350 a month) so I drive and ride for a while and bring him home again.  I go to college in the town where her barn is so I'm driving up there and back every day anyway (although I'm driving a car that gets 32 mpg)which makes during the week would the best so I wouldn't have to burn gas going up there on the weekends.  I just don't know what to do.

Obviously my first instinct was an automatic yes because she's great and I love the barn and it's the perfect training facility for a prospering eventer. Then I started worrying about the gas money.  My husband is the most supportive person ever so he told me to do it because it does no good to have Buck if he's not going to get ridden hahaha!  He's not a trail horse and he's not a pasture pony... he needs a job!

So after this LONG post that is my money rant and worry, I just don't know what to do with myself.  Why can't I just win the lottery??? Oh right.... I have to buy a ticket first :-p

How Far

I received my latest issue of Dressage Today and there were some ads in the back for horses for sale.  Great read by the way if you're in or interested in getting involved in the FEI Junior & Young Rider Program.  It's really my favorite magazine.  Anyway, I've never noticed the ads in the back before and I was flipping through them day dreaming about which ones I would buy if I had more than $10 in my checking account. As I flipped through the pages I just happened to spot this guy thrown in there with horses anywhere from $3,500 to $60,000... $225,000!!!

My question to you is, how much would you be willing to pay for a competition horse?  How far would you go to compete international?  Honestly, if I had the money to spare, it wouldn't be beyond me to consider a horse who's purchase price fell into the 6 digit range hahaha!

Here is the link to his full ad on Equine.com, Aristo.  He is gorgeous, beautiful gaits and obviously has proven himself internationally...  If I could only win the lottery (of course you have to buy a ticket first).  So just how far would you go (given you had the financial means of course)?

Brilliant Video!

This video gave me chills and I just had to share it!  Good job ohsoawesome12!

Curious

So I know this is an old controversial topic but I was reading some different articles on the topic because I am interested in the whole subject and thought I'd write about it... Cloning.  What are your thoughts on the whole thing?  Particularly in our sport.

From "Gemini" the cloned colt of Gem Twist to "Clayton" the stallion owned by 11 time World Champion barrel racer Charmayne James, cloned from her gelding Scamper.  Both horses are probably what Dianna called "once in a lifetime" horses so I completely understand why Charmayne and those around Gem Twist would want to clone them, but should they?

In 2004 the AQHA (American Quarter Horse Association) passed a rule stating that any horse produced from cloning could not be registered with their association.  Which, if I understand the rules of AQHA registration, means their offspring can not be registered with the association.  Now in most events... such as barrel racing and show jumping... breed registration doesn't really matter that much, your horses can still participate in events where breed associations are not sponsoring the event.

My concern is does this make it easier for those to have the money to win because they have a clone of a horse who probably set the bar in their events in the past.  Consider having to compete against Gem Twist again (that is to say if Gemini comes out with Gem Twist's talent of course) he was a horse who definitely made a mark in the Show Jumping world and now because a particular group of people could afford it, he's back and competing again (to a point anyway).  Does that give them an obvious advantage over those who can not afford to clone a horse like that?

I know that it's usually those who can afford the expensive horses who tend to do well in certain events (it's not always the case but more often than not) anyway but does this give them an even larger advantage over those who can not afford to clone?  What would happen in dressage if they decided to clone say, Totilas or Brentina?  Do you think cloning will have an effect on dressage competitions or not?