Seriously?!?

I came back outside last night after the horses had been fed to take the dogs out and the pasture gate was completely torn off the hinges, it looked like someone had blown it apart with a hand grenade.  I grabbed Bentley and ran back inside and hollered at Shawn telling him the gate was gone.

I put on boots and a coat and ran back outside first towards the highway because I just assumed the worse and I was going to find them both out on the side of the road hit or something or they were just gone....
When I didn't see them out there I went back over to the gate and looked down towards the back of the pasture.  Shawn saw her before I did and started to walk in that direction.  Buck was down there with her and as we got closer I noticed she was standing funny, with all her weight in the front end and her right back leg was up, I knew this was not going to be good...

When I got down to her, her leg was broken at the ankle.  I won't go into details but needless to say there was nothing anyone could do to repair it.  She had torn up the backs of her legs, I assume she got sided up to the fence and got shocked by the electric fence and some how got her leg caught in the pasture gate (it was just a galvanized gate).  There was nothing we could do but call the vet and have him come out and put her to sleep (it took him an hour to get there though).

When the vet finally showed I grabbed Buck and walked him back up to the top of the pasture and gave him some feed to distract him while Shawn was down with Dolly and the vet.  Buck kept watching her of course and was fine for a while until she started to go down.  When she laid down he got very agitated and made the strangest low whinny, I've never heard anything like it and I hope not to again.  It sent chills down my spine and made me cry, I know he knew what was going on.  He basically dragged me all the way down to where Dolly was laying.  When we got down there he snorted really hard and flipped out and dragged me all the way back up to the top of the pasture where he proceeded to dance circles around me and holler for her.

After the vet made sure she was down we decided the best solution for Buck would be to load him up and haul him to New Spring Farm (about an hour trip with a trailer, it was almost 2 in the morning at this point).  She was going have to stay out in the pasture over night until we could get someone to come bury her or something the next day and I didn't think it was right to leave him out there with her all night long, he would have been panicking all night anyway.  I was really afraid he might go through the fence in the middle of the night and get hit on the highway.

Once he was comfortably in a stall we left the trailer at the barn and went home.  I went to bed about 4:30 this morning.  We got up this morning and spent the entire day trying to find someone to help us.  Luckily we have a great neighbor who just happened to have a huge bulldozer with a bucket on the front, he took care of everything in about a half an hour, I was so grateful.  There are few people out there who will still drop everything and help someone just because they can, I don't know how I'm going to repay him.

I feel so guilty for what happened to her and right now I feel like I'm not fit to have horses...  This has just not been the holiday break I had been hoping for.  I feel like a horrible horse parent today...

Woo Is Me

I have been having a really rough time getting a hold of a farrier since my husband and I got married (March 2011) and we moved to our current residence.

When I was boarding Buck in Columbia life was great, the barn already had a great farrier lined up who came to the barn about once or twice a month and you could guarantee he would show up exactly like he said he would, clock work.  You just signed your name on the list, left him a check, and your horse would have pretty and perfect feet when you came back out.  It was like a trip from the hoof fairy!

Well now that I've moved I had to go searching for a farrier on my own.  Needless to say it was an almost impossible task since neither of us actually knew anyone down here, especially horse people.  So finally my father-in-law found out from his barber there was a kid who lived about 12 miles away who was a really good farrier.

The first time I called the kid he called me back a week later.  I decided I'd give him a shot anyway since I still didn't know anyone, we set something up for a couple of days later.  He then called me a half an hour before he was suppose to show up and cancelled and wanted to reschedule for the next day.  Ok fine, I'll go for that, he showed up TWO HOURS late after the reschedule.  All I needed was Buck's feet trimmed at this point, took him all of like 15 minutes and cost me $20 (heck of a deal in my opinion since my old farrier cost between $60-$100 depending on the work you needed done).  The weird thing was he then hung around for like a half an hour to forty-five minutes longer, flirting and trying to chit-chat.  I actually had to start saddling Buck (even though I hadn't planned on riding) and walking away with him before the guy finally left.

So 8 weeks later I called him again and he didn't answer, never called me back.  I called him a few more times until finally another 8 weeks went by before I finally got a call back and we set up an evening for him to come out again.  At this point I was getting annoyed with the phone tag and decide to start snooping for a new farrier again.... UGH!  Doesn't do me any good to have a nice horse with messed up feet... I started thinking maybe I needed to take up trimming his feet myself but quickly changed my mind when I remembered how picking up furniture and moving it can cause me to throw out my back!

The night he was suppose to show up this time he called (a half hour before he was suppose to show up) and left a message on my phone because I was away from it.  He stated he had something come up at home and he was wondering if it would be alright if we rescheduled for the next night, if it was not that was alright he would come on out anyway.  I didn't get to my phone until almost an hour after he was suppose to show up.  He left that message with no intentions of actually showing up that night I believe.  If it were me and the person didn't answer and hadn't called you back by the time you were suppose to meet, I would have shown up like I said I would!

I called him back and left a message letting him know I could not work it in the next night because I had to work but I wanted to know if he could come on Tuesday night instead (this phone call and situation all took place on a Thursday evening).  He NEVER called me back!!  Not until the day AFTER I wanted him to come out.

So, I am NOT calling this kid back anymore and I have found a new farrier thanks to the local saddle club (yay horse people!).  The unfortunate thing about this one is I have to load up both the horses and take them over to him.  Guess if he does a good job it will be worth the effort (except Buck is a nightmare to get in the trailer when you don't have help! Not mean just stubborn).

When Is Too Much Really Too Much?

You guys probably read my post a few weeks ago about the ad I found in the Dressage Today magazine with the picture of the horse they were asking $225,000 and I thought that was a little excessive... I now retract my previous statement and that is a heck of a deal haha!

When is too much too much to pay for a horse?  This past weekend was the 2011 Breeder's Cup Classic, a race I watch almost as tightly as the Triple Crown races.  On November 4, 2011 a cute little filly by the name of Royal Delta swept the Ladies' Classic by 2 1/2 lengths which I considered to be pretty impressive.  Anyway to make a long story short at Tuesdays Keeneland Sale, Royal Delta was the only 2011 Breeder's Cup winner to be offered at the sale.  Needless to say she blew the roof off the sale going for $8.5 million, a Keeneland record for a horse still in training.  She was purchased by Benajmin Leon's Besilu Stables and cosigned by Chanteclair Farm.

This puts Royal Delta as the 3rd highest price for a racemare or broodmare after the $10.5 million paid for Playful Act in 2007 and $9 million paid for Ashado in 2009.  Of all the horses sold the day Royal Delta went through the ring (285) 22 of these horses went for over a million dollars.

So somewhere along the way I think I got involved in the wrong end of the horse business hahaha!  Here's the video of the sale if you'd like to see what it looks like to purchase a horse for that amount of money.

Superstar Show-Jumper Dies Today

A world class competitor has died today.  Hickstead, partner of Eric Lamaze and Olympic medal winner in the 2008 Beijing Games collapsed after finishing a 13 fence course at a World Cup event of what they believe to be a heart attack.

According to one story from The Associated Press Lamaze stated they had just finished their round, knocking one rail and were circling to leave the ring when Hickstead collapsed of an apparent heart attack.  Vets tried to revive Hickstead in front of a speechless crowd at the Rolex FEI event in Verona, Italy.

After the veterinary service took Hickstead off the course the riders requested to have the competition abandoned and all held a moment of silence for Hickstead and Lamaze.

I couldn't even begin to imagine what it would be like to experience something so devastating with Buck, who I've only had for 2 years.  My heart goes out to Eric Lamaze who has been working with the 15 year old Hickstead since he was 7 years old.

I feel the equestrian world has lost a once in a lifetime horse today.  Horses with the kind of talent and willingness of Hickstead do not come around every day and I believe thanks to this horse and Eric Lamaze the show jumping world will never been the same.

R.I.P Hickstead :'(

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)?

Ride-Alert

I saw this nifty idea on a link posted to my Facebook by Mary King.  Ride-Alert seems to be along the same lines as On Star or Life Alert but for riders.  I tried to do some searching and I couldn't really find a lot of information so I was wondering if anyone else knew if there was something like this in the US yet?

I would say for those of you who trail ride frequently or those of you who spend a good amount of time riding alone, this could be some what helpful if you fall off your horse (excluding instances where you're unconscious and unable to call).  What do you think?

Random Thought

So I was reading one of my Dressage Today magazines earlier today and there was an article about the men in dressage.  The article is Wanted: More Men in Dressage if you're curious.

I was then thinking about all the dressage shows, or any english shows I've been to for that matter, and I think I only remember competing with one guy and he was in the junior division.   I live in the midwest, a world of rodeo, roping and western riding.  Every guy I know who rides either ropes, rodeos, or just trail rides for fun.  I don't know any who actually ride english.  Here they even make fun of the men they do see competing in english events saying it's for "sissys" or it's a "wimpy" sport... little do they know!  I'm just making an assumption but I would venture to say in other countries there are many man who compete in english events.

Anyway, it's as though you go for years in lower level dressage competitions rarely seeing men at all and then one day you get to an upper level, national or international events and suddenly  they are dominating the competition (Steffen Peters, Guenter Seidel, John Williams, etc.)!  Now granted I understand some of these men do compete in eventing but still, a lot of them are still clearing out those "blue ribbons" in dressage.

What I wanna know, does the same apply to other parts of the country?  Are your dressage or english riding competitions dominated by women or do you compete equally against both genders?

Brilliant Video!

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

Season Changes and Blankets

So it's getting closer to the time of year when I have to start thinking about blanketing Buck for the winter. Now, normally it wouldn't be a big deal because he usually lives in a stall and the sheet I have for him works pretty well. Now I have moved to a place where there are no stalls, just a shed he can go in and out of with Dolly whenever he wants.

My concerns are 1) he doesn't really grow a good winter coat so he needs something pretty thick I think, 2) since he is out all the time it makes it difficult to keep him from tearing up the blanket so I need something which will hold up and 3) like most college students I am running on a limited budget so I need to find something which has 1 and 2 but is also not a ridiculous price.

Last year I had purchased a Wrangler (I think) blanket for him when he went out to the pasture during the day but sadly one of the girls who turns out turned him out in a pasture with a horse who ended up almost ripping the blanket right off of him. Needless to say I do not think it is repairable.

I'm hoping maybe some of you will have some suggestions on blankets you've tried and liked because at this point I'm not really sure which way I want to go with this.

P.S. I don't blanket Dolly because she turns into a wooly mammoth in the winter and some how always manages to get blankets off and wrapped around her no matter how many straps they have on them!

I love Dolly... She's a great little horse and fun to have around when I just want to go for a ride and not actually "work". She's a great trail horse and it's kind of fun to go run barrels every once in a while just to do something different.

So here's my problem. Buck has some SERIOUS separation anxiety when I take him away from her to ride. The anxiety is so bad I really have a hard time getting anything done with him. Lately he's even been scary, he rears back and jumps around and cries for her. He has to spin around to where he can see her all the time and it's just getting frustration and discouraging.

I really don't want to sell Dolly because I really love having her around, not to mention I'm the only person she's never tried to buck off so I feel like she kind of likes me too. I'm starting to think this may be my only solution to this little dilemma. I love her but I want to be able to keep working Buck without worrying about the safety of myself and him anymore than I already do. Plus, his training and career is more important to me then how I feel about her considering she's only really around because I love her and she's fun.

I also don't know that I like leaving him out in the pasture alone all the time, horses as we all know are herd animals and I would think for him that would be kind of depressing and boring...

So I'm asking you for your opinion on this one. Should I just suck it up and put my little painted pony up for sale, or is there another way to get him to behave while we work.. I mean really he could stop being a baby for the whole hour or so that we're working...

P.S. the little black pegasus really isn't relevant to this blog... I just thought he was cute haha!

European Championships

Thoughts?  Comments? Feelings? Anyone?

Typically this event is dominated by Germany and the Netherlands but this year was definitely not the case.   Between the stunning ride by Carl Hester on Uthopia  and Charlotte Dujardin the British team is making a shocking sweep of the competition it seems.  Carl Hester and Uthopia scored an 82.568% and even scored a perfect 10 from all the judges on their extended trot.  That pair was amazing.

Obviously this video isn't from the European Championships but I thought I would share it for those who haven't seen them in action.  I don't know if I feel this horse is as flashy as Totilas but I do think his tests are flawless.  When it comes to raw talent and natural movement, Uthopia is definitely not lacking in either.  

This video is from the same competition as the video of Carl but this is Charlotte Dujardin.  Between her and Carl the British team may show a team record score now since the two of them are both averaging 80%.  It's nice to see, no matter what training fads come into the competitions throughout the years, after it's all said and done flawless equitation and spectacular talent can still bring home a gold medal.

Totilas ended up scoring a 79.453% which seated him for a third place individual medal and the highest score for the German team who acquired him from the Netherland team after their house cleaning 2010 year with him.  This years championships were one of two times he's placed outside of the top two positions.  

Laura Bechtolsheimer, who makes me feel like there's hope for me she's only 26 years old with a fabulous show record for the British team so far in her career, finished 5th with a decent 77.280%.  So far she's received a silver medal at the 2009 ECs as well as three silvers (two individuals and one team) at WEG in 2010 and 3 gold medals at the 2010 World Championships on the gelding, Mistral Hojris who she competed on in the 2011 ECs.

So for the first time in the 25 years of the FEI European Championships Britain claimed a well deserved team gold.  I am interested to see how the rest of the competition plays out for the rest of the week as well how things unfold and line up for the upcoming Olympic Games.

**Update** I found a video from FEI TV with some highlights of the championships!

Dressage Queens

Sorry this is probably going to be REALLY long.

Saturday I went to my first show of the year, the Show-Me State Games/USDF Region 4 Competition (it's been almost a year and a half since I went to a show with my Thoroughbred).  It was epic!  The weather was AMAZING!!  It has been basically 200 degrees around here for almost two weeks now and yesterday it was a blistering... 75 degrees!  Oh Missouri how I love you.

My first ride was at 7:45 in the morning so I wanted to get to the show grounds no later than 6:30... that sure didn't happen.  We pulled out of the drive at 5:15 AM (already behind schedule) to go pick up my horse from my trainers barn.  The electric brakes on my trailer started grabbing really hard, even when you weren't touching the brakes on the truck!!  I had to jump out at a stoplight, yank the plug from the truck and jump back in.  So now the brakes stopped grabbing but it was still dark out and we didn't have any lights.  We had to sneak to the barn (which is 45 minutes from my house) without getting busted.  Thankfully, we made it, but we were seriously running behind because we didn't get to the barn until 6 and still had to load all of my tack AND Buck (my Thoroughbred)! AHH!  I am starting to stress out.  We got everything loaded and Buck decided he wanted to be a good boy and didn't fight getting into the trailer too much, we pulled out of my trainers drive at 6:30.  I tried to hurry as best I could pulling a 5,000 pound trailer with a 1,500 pound horse in it. 

It was 7:00 AM when we got to the show grounds and got parked.  I raced to change into my show clothes (red polo, white breeches and dress boots), ran to check in, and threw my tack on Buck.  My trainer showed up some where in the middle and we went to the arena to warm up (7:25!).  One of the show stewards (who was not a horse person) came up and snapped at me about not being out in front of the arena for my test (7:40).  Luckily for me, my trainer, who is an 'R' judge and has been around the block once or twice at dressage shows caught her, telling her that my ride was not until 7:45 so I still had time to warm up, the lady was NOT happy.  My trainer saw the person in the ring was headed down the center line for her final salute so I made my way to the big standard arena for my turn, I was SO nervous!!

Buck was a ROCKSTAR!!  Despite the crazy hurried morning he was brilliant and did everything just the way I asked him (even though I did not do the best job of asking).  Going back and looking at the video later I was very impressed with how far he's come since our last horse show (which was a DISASTER). Hopefully at some point in the near future I will be able to post some pictures from this horse show and our last one so you can see what I'm talking about.  After the ride I took him back to the trailer since we didn't go again until 11:13 AM.  I waited around for our score, watching the other people in my Training Level Test 2 class and also watching an awesome FEI test performed by a gorgeous Fresian stallion.  Scores were up and tragically... 48%, sad day.  Considering how well he did I thought we would have done a little better, but I was just happy with the way he performed either way, he was such a good boy.

I did my second test, Training Level Test 1, in the small grass arena and it was much worse than the first one despite the longer, amazing warm up.  Buck kept trying to out run me, possibly because of the cross country jumps he could see since the small arena for this test was on the grass in the barns cross country course.  There was a different judge for this test and surprisingly he scored a 59%.  I wonder what he would have scored on the first test with that judge...

I was done and got to sit, relax, and watch the rest of my team mates go the rest of the day.  Sadly for them it started raining about noon and didn't stop until almost 3 PM.  2 of my team mates rode beautifully (in my opinion) even though it was pouring rain on them the entire time.  The final team mate had a decent ride I had thought, but she was not happy with the way her horse was performing and pulled out of her final test.  He had some serious fly bites on his wither area she thought might have been hurting him.  I had heard before she rode we were sitting with a good chance at a team silver medal, but because our scores on our 2 tests are added up and divided by the number of riders on our teams and she left before her second test, we received a bronze medal instead.  I can't say for sure what I would have done in that situation but needless to say your horses health and happiness comes first above all else and if he was in pain there was no reason to ride the second test.  

All craziness aside, I have to say after not going to a show for a year and a half, Buck was brilliant and I hope to get to show more this year with him.

**Edit** I finally received our team photo from the show so I decided I should at least post that up here :-)  Buck and I are the ones on the far left!