Funny beet pulp story

I claim no credit for this, but thought I should share in the silliness:

Beet Pulp Safety Warning (aka the famous squirrel story), by Susan Evans.

Try not to laugh too hard!

A wee bit overdue

Geez, it's been a long time since I've posted here. I knew it had been a while, but Nov. 15 was the last post. Yikes.

My family has had a wonderful thing happen since then that has consumed pretty much all the time I would otherwise have devoted to horses - we've purchased two acres in south Austin, with room for the horses! I've started a blog, A little piece of heaven, about the property. It's a pretty major fixer-upper, but man is it going to be wonderful when we're done.

Since we bought the house, I haven't done much riding since I've been too busy getting the property ready for equine inhabitants. RD, who leases Red, has been riding Saga for me when he's stuck in from the rain, as have my Irish friend and Ziggy's dad. Many, many thanks to all of them for helping me keep my horse from going crazy when he's stuck in. All of my show plans for the fall were canceled, but frankly I'd rather go foxhunting with my husband, so hopefully we'll have some time for that come spring after we move the horses to the new place.

Red continues to be fat and happy, but I know that RD will miss him once we move him south. Cash is doing fabulously well - I got a great picture of him on a mousepad as a Christmas present from Paint Creek Farm where he is boarded, and he looks just great. My only regret is that I haven't been out to visit him recently, but I'm hoping to remedy that soon.

About the most exciting thing that's happen to Saga lately is that I finally, FINALLY found a blanket that fit him. I broke down and spent the money for a Rambo medium weight. It's the fourth blanket I tried on him, and it fits beautifully. He wasn't nearly as excited about it as I was.

Woohoo, a blanket. Gee mom, couldn't you have gotten me a bunch of carrots or some apples like all the other humans got their horses? I swear.

Somewhere I have a picture of Cash wearing his brand-new Rambo medium weight, same colors and everything, from back in 1998. That thing is still around and going strong, although it's faded a bit and I've re-waterproofed it any number of times. Let's hope this one lasts half as long!

How to beat your horse in three easy steps

Today, the hubby and I went out to practice some mounted combat on horseback. This is a game we do in the SCA where we fight from horseback using padded rattan weapons. The target is the other rider (you get disqualified if you hit the horse in any way) and both horses and riders wear armor. However, generally for practice we don't wear armor since we're just playing around to get the horses used to being maneuvered and having a foam sword swung around their heads.

Getting started... nobody seems to care much, although Red is eyeing the grass.

This is really Saga's first time with this, aside from the day we did the demo at Pioneer Farm, and he was really great. We followed Red around while the hubby hit some fence posts and the side of the round pen - we do this to get the horse used to the noise. Saga was interested but calm. We moved on to swinging the foam sword over Saga's ears, and he really didn't care. Eventually, I picked up a sword too and started to pretend-hit my husband, who can block pretty much anything I throw, seeing how he's been fighting on foot for so long. And then, as we started to maneuver around, Saga decided that he would try a new technique for disabling his opponent.

Yup, it's the old "head-in-the-lap" technique. Disable your opponent by blocking them however possible! (This is the view I had when this first happened.)

We quickly discovered that this disabling technique is pretty effective, and that both Saga and Red were content to stand there all day while we laughed at them. It also made it easy for me to play whack-a-mole on my husband's helmet, since he wasn't going anywhere in a hurry. So we called FuzzyPony over to take some pictures...

So exactly HOW does one defend against this? Hubby is not sure...
Getting the hang of fighting while sitting on an immobile horse sofa with a Saga head in his lap...
And of course, when you can't beat 'em, hug 'em!

We had a short but pleasant, fun-filled ride. I need more of those! Alas, the weekend is over; back to the grind of the work week. Hopefully I'll get a bit more riding in, but that remains to be seen.

Impressive video of indoor eventing

No, it's not a video of me, but this is just really neat!

2005 Indoor Eventing

I'm especially impressed by how balanced the horse was - the rider really moved her up for the XC-like fences but rode her steady for the stadium-like fences. And the fences themselves, in an INDOOR ARENA! I counted ~20 jumping efforts (some combinations), including the bank, the window, and a cute skinny fence.

This looks like way too much fun... I wonder if there's anything like that around here?

An excellent excuse to drink

This weekend, we went foxhunting again. All I can say is WOW, I want to do more of this!

The fixture for this weekend's hunt, which included the blessing of the hounds - i.e. opening of the official formal hunt season - was 7IL Ranch down near Bellville, TX. It was a nice fixture if not quite as much land as our last fixture. As with last time, we hauled over to our friend's property in Brenham on Friday night, then headed over to the hunt on Saturday morning.

This time, my suspicion that foxhunting is merely a British excuse to drink copious quantities of alcohol and run one's horse madly over hill and dale was confirmed. And a fine time it was too! The morning started off with a stirrup cup of port with a side of pound cake. Thus fortified, we headed over for the blessing of the hounds.

Readers will be glad to know that I at least managed to get a few pictures this time, although none of us galloping about (YOU try taking pictures while hauling a$$ over the countryside in a group of horses!) Unfortunately, I took them with my iPhone's camera, so they're not all that great. Oh, and none of them are of me, since I was the one with the camera. Nonetheless, there is photographic evidence of our excursion.

Heading over to the blessing of the hounds. That's the hubby on Red on the left, and D. on his horse Booker on the right. And Saga's ears right of center. Funny how everyone looks so darn SHORT from atop Saga! :)

Getting ready to bless the hounds.

The field listening to the blessing of the hounds. The blessing itself was quite lovely, asking for the safety of the horses and riders, blessing the land, the hounds, and of course the coyote, asking that he be swift and crafty so that we could chase him another day.

The hay wagon for the non-riders (and the beer cooler. Did I mention that hunting is an opportunity to drink?)

After the blessing, we headed out. I opted to go second field since I got so fatigued last time, and apparently it was a good choice. The husband later told me that they had quite a few really long gallops, where Red, despite his short stubby legs, had no problem keeping up. Saga was a dream for the entire ride - he stayed collected and was very content to be in the middle of the second field group. However, the sand footing was deep so I think that had a lot to do with how well he carried himself - getting through it was hard work. I actually got a lot of compliments on him!

Mostly the day was trotting, canter, and a lot of standing around. The hounds never found anything except a deer, so the chase was somewhat limited for 2nd field, although 1st field had a lot of running. No jumping for anyone, however.

I took the next couple of pictures at some of our stops... when I wasn't taking sips from the flask, of course. :)

New-found friend R - she was the event rider I met last time. Lovely to visit with her again!

First flight on a hilltop, taking a break. Yeah, I know they're little dots... iPhones don't have a zoom on the camera!

We intersected with first flight at one point - they took a short break near us. You can't really tell in these pictures since you can't see faces, but this hunt is the first time in my life that men actually outnumbered women on horseback.

It's hard to see because of the lighting, but the husband is on the short horse in the middle of the picture.

We were out for about 1.5 hours or so - not as long as last time due to the heat (nearly 80!) and the lack of things to chase. We eventually headed back to the trailers for beverages - the alchoholic kind, of course. After passing the flask around every time we stopped, we were greeted by beer and mimosas on the hay wagon! See, I told you it's just an excuse to drink. I had a mimosa, but the husband ended up wearing most of his due to trying to catch someone else's runaway horse. Got to get the hunt coats dry cleaned!

Untacking back at the trailer.

After we untacked, we took the horses back to Brenham, unloaded and turned them out, then went over to the huntsmaster's house for the hunt brunch. In true Texas style, it was BBQ - with mimosas, beer, and wine (did I mention the drinking?) We got a tour of the facility, which included a lovely barn, kennel, very nice turnouts, a lovely sand arena, and a full Novice and Training XC course! When I exclaimed over the XC course, I was immediately invited out to school sometime. Yeah, I'll be taking the huntsmaster up on that offer!

After a day like that, it's hard to get back to the real world. So I leave you with this complete non-sequitor: my cat Freya in the bathroom sink.

Yup, a cat in a sink. What will I think of next?

Eyeballs? Take two, they're small!

What do eyeballs have to do with riding? Not a thing, but it the saying struck me as being so funny that I just had to share it. Tonight as the trick-or-treaters came to the door, my husband answered with our bowl of candy, saying, "Eyeballs? Take two, they're small!" to the kids. We found this so very amusing since the responses varied from, "Oooh, cool!" to "Are they REEEEEAL?" Apparently, chocolates covered in eyeball-looking foil for Halloween are all the rage... and just think of how much fun you can have asking kids if they'd like an eyeball!

Back to the point of this blog - riding. Life got away from me this week and I was only able to make it out on Thursday. We had a nice ride, and Saga was surprisingly mellow given how long he'd been in his stall (it's still muddy) and that there were four other horses in the arena. He didn't even try any head tosses! I was having a really hard time getting him off my right leg - we eventually got it, but it was tough. Because I figured out that I'm not keeping much weight in my right stirrup, I decided to do some work without stirrups. To the left, I was fine at the trot, but to the right, I kept sliding off to the left. This makes sense if I'm not sitting even. I'm hoping that I can talk FuzzyPony into doing some longe stuff with me. I need to get my position back!

Today I had a lovely ride and actually got to ride in the outdoor and around the outside of the arenas. Since we're going foxhunting next weekend, I decided to do some interval training work. We started off in the outdoor with a lot of walking and then a long trot on a loose rein. We took a break and then did a bit of canter, but I was concerned because the footing in the outdoor was deep in places and really chunky in others, so I decided to go ride out of the arena. We did a super long trot set, probably 8-10 minutes, where I alternated between two-point and posting trot. We popped over a few trot poles and a tiny X. Saga was really tired at the end of that trot set, and I could feel it in my legs, so we took another walk break.

A little unbalanced in the trot going downhill, but soft and listening to me.

We finished with a three-ish minute canter set, both directions. FuzzyPony very kindly took pictures of us and got some really fantastic ones.

Ignore Saga in this picture and focus on the tips of Taran's adorably fuzzy ears that frame this so perfectly!

Nice uphill left lead canter. I tried really hard on this ride to keep my lower leg forward and under me. Not too bad here.

Right lead canter goign downhill. He's still pretty balanced but reaching out in front. I'm sitting up a litte here to balance him as well.

More right lead canter downhill. I love this shot because he's cantering past the resident sheep without batting an eye. Such a good boy!

Coming back uphill on the right lead. My leg has slipped a bit but I like the way this shot looks.

I was really pleased with how the ride went. Riding out of the arena means that we got some work on uneven ground, and he kept his balance really quite well. He was rateable and steady up to the little X and we got very nice spots each time. He's still hard to balance when he gets tired, but I think that if we keep doing this sort of thing it will be much easier as he gets stronger and I become better able to rate him.

Aren't Taran and Saga so handsome? And thanks FuzzyPony for taking all the pictures!

So much fun, it should be illegal! (TM)

(TM) Today's blog title brought to you courtesy of Daun over at the Eventing Percheron.

This weekend we went foxhunting at Independence Foxhounds. OMG, it was SO MUCH FUN! If you haven't been hunting (on a safe, sane hunt horse), YOU MUST TRY IT. I absolutely cannot wait to go again!

The hunt is near Brenham, TX, about 2.5 hours from our barn, so we headed over Friday night so that we could be there in time for the 9 a.m. start Saturday morning. Some friends of ours, D & T, who are also riders, had invited us to meet them and stay overnight at their property, which is also near Brenham. We rolled in around 9:30 p.m. and enjoyed some drinks and snacks and several hours of great company Friday evening.

Saturday morning we were up bright and early, loaded up the horses, and headed over to the hunt. We arrived a bit later than we had intended and scrambled a bit to sign waivers, pay the capping fee, and groom and tack. I agonized over using my Wintec AP saddle on Saga, which doesn't fit him well at all but is grippy and more designed for jumping, or using my dressage saddle which fits him great but is made of ultra-slick French bridle leather and doesn't do as well for jumping. I decided that I'd be better off in the AP even if it meant that Saga needed a few days off for his back, so I padded him up and off we went. My husband was on Reddums, who was feeling exceedingly feisty.

We met up with the leader of second field and she kindly allowed us to join her. We started off taking it pretty easy with some nice forward trotting and a good bit of walking and waiting while the hounds cast for a scent (you'll have to pardon me if I get the terminology wrong, I'm still very new to this). Red was feeling a bit feisty as he kept tossing his head and jerking the reins, but I think my husband had a bit of a tight hold on him. Saga was very good - I did have to continually ask him to be steady and not try to pull out in front, but he didn't jerk me around and throw his head or anything. There were several times when first field went flying by us trying to catch the hounds, and Saga just stood like a rock.

It was a completely different experience than when I'd taken Cash cubbing years ago up in Maryland. He's always been rather antsy in a crowd, and I really wanted to try foxhunting but didn't think it was a good idea... and you know, I was right. I spent three hours having my arms pulled out of their sockets by an absolutely frantic, maniacal horse. It was the first and last time I ever took him hunting.

Anyway, we followed the hounds for a bit through several large fields with grazing cattle, then stood for a while longer and I had the opportunity to chat with R, a lovely dressage and eventer with a beautiful Danish warmblood gelding. As we chatted, we figured out that we had been in the same Beginner Novice division at Pine Hill just a few weeks ago! It turned out that she had been in second place, just before me, after dressage, then had a refusal in stadium, allowing me to move up. It's a small world!

We did a nice canter and trot through yet another field (the fixture for this hunt is about 4000 acres, with one side bordering the Brazos river) and then did quite a lot of waiting while the hounds cast around again for a scent. I was having some technical issues with my equipment, namely that I had put my stirrups on the outside of the saddle flap instead of underneath, and the T keeper on the Wintec webbers was rubbing right against my calf (and I have a lovely set of bruises to prove it!). I almost hopped off to fix them but they rounded up the hounds at that point and then went to cast them off at a new location, so I just sort of dealt with it.

At that point one of the folks from first field came over and asked us if we wanted to go with first field. I said yes after checking to see if there were options to go around jumps, since I didn't want to be faced with a 3' coop and no alternatives. So, we headed off at a mad hand gallop over to a set of woods where the hounds had gone, then went tearing through the woods.

I should mention that by this time I realized I didn't have nearly the stamina for this that I thought I should. My legs in particular were quite fatigued, although I was having a relatively easy time of keeping Saga at a steady pace by bridging the reins over his neck. As we were hauling ass through the woods, I was really having a hard time with muscle fatigue. Add that to the fact that I was wearing sunglasses and it was very dark in the woods... suddenly I thought the trail went left and Saga thought it went right, and I parted company over his left shoulder. It was a fairly slow fall though, and I managed to avoid falling on a dead branch, although I think Saga's knee hit my left thigh on the way down (I got a huge bruise from something, anyway). I landed in the soft dirt - but not in the mud, thank goodness! - mostly on my feet, reins in hand. I even managed to keep my white shirt clean! Everyone stopped, I assured them I was fine and asked them to go on, but R very kindly stayed behind with me. I stood there for several minutes waiting for my legs to stop shaking (my right leg was visibly trembling) and then got back on. R and I walked and trotted back out of the woods to find the other folks in second field and joined back up with them for the rest of the hunt. My husband stayed with first field and helped set up a line to chase coyote, but they manged to escape in fairly short order into the land adjoining the fixture we were on, at which point we all headed back to the trailers.

That's twice I have come off over Saga's left shoulder in situations where I really shouldn't have. I know my right heel comes up in canter transitions, so I think I simply don't have enough weight in my right stirrup and it's causing me balance issues. It's time to go back to riding without stirrups on a regular basis, apparently.

The other issue is, once again, fitness. I was having a really hard time keeping up - I am just not strong enough. Realistically I'm only riding two or three times a week, and then I'm doing dressage. It's not like I'm doing 2-point for an hour while interval training out in a field of rolling hills, like I should be doing. Saga, while he sweated a good deal more than the horses who do this every weekend, seemed to do fairly well. As he got tired toward the end I had to work harder to keep him together, but he did OK, as did Red. In fact, after we got back to our friend's property after the hunt and turned the horses out, Saga and Red went trotting and cantering off into their two-acre grass turnout. They both looked none the worse for the wear.

The folks at the hunt were incredibly friendly and helpful, and we really had a lovely time. We've been invited back for the blessing of the hounds on November 7, and I would dearly love to go. I have already been looking on Ebay for hunt coats and boots for my husband, and a flask for each of us. And then there's the small matter of a jumping saddle, but I'm getting ahead of myself...

Tally ho!