10 for October via VivaCarlos

Thanks to LWilliams at VivaCarlos for more questions!

1. What discipline do you ride? What would you ride if you could pick any other one?
I ride western performance – trail, western pleasure, horsemanship etc.  If I could pick another one? I would love to get back to riding English and learning to jump and/or maybe do dressage again.  Of course, I would need a riding horse for that!  Or maybe I should take lessons over the winter? 

Riding at a fair a few years ago...

2. How many horses have you ridden in your entire riding career?
I can think of about 25 that I rode more than 1x.  I’m sure there are a few more – horses I rode when searching for Spencer, lesson horses, my friends pony when I was a kid, etc.


3. Most bizarre activity you’ve done with your/a horse?
As a kid, we used to race each other through the rows of a cornfield when the corn was tall. It was hilarious and dumb at the same time. The horses would spook at the sound of the corn stalks and the corn cobs would hit you in the shins, causing your legs to go numb. 

4. Do you consider riding to be your outlet? If yes, why?
I guess…I haven’t been riding much in the past year or two though.  I think just being around horses is an outlet for me.  And as a kid, I loved the freedom to be out riding around the countryside.  I actually had a great childhood, up until my Dad died when I was 15.  After that, riding was definitely therapy.

5. Have you ever read horse-related magazines? If yes, which one(s)?
I’m a reformed magazine addict.  The ads and repeated articles got to me. I’ve read and subscribed to: Horse and Rider, Your Horse (UK) Horse and Rider UK (at least the ads were for different stuff!) Equus, The Canadian Horse Journal, Practical Horseman, Dressage Today, AQHA journal (omg the ads), APHA journal and probably purchased many more.

6. Most memorable advice given to you?
Breathe!  And, “more trot”.  Both from my friend/retired coach.   Every time I ride or even watch a horse show with people riding in English tack (hunt seat in the breed world), I hear my coach’s squeaky voice saying “more trot people, more trot!”.   And it just means more leg to get the horse moving out more – which is a common problem with western horses doing the hunt seat classes.

I'm not sure what we are discussing, but it probably was me asking if I needed more trot.

More trot?  Likely.

7. Did you ever collect Breyer horse models or similar?
Do Royal Doulton horses (porcelain) count?  I have a few of those from when I was a kid.  It is a funny thing to buy for a kid really since they weren’t to be played with. They just sat (and continue to sit) on a shelf.

8. Favorite “celebrity” horse?
Not sure on this one. I’m going to go with Teddy the Shetland.  He is a big deal on Instagram.    

9. If you could spend a day learning from any horse person (past or present), who would you choose?
I would like to travel back in time and spend the day with my friend’s husband when he was managing stallions and breeding a lot of mares. He knows so much about mares/foaling/breeding that I could learn.  He is still around for questions, he just doesn’t have horses anymore!

10. If you could ride in any international arena in the world, where would you choose?
Well, since I’m in Canada, the US is technically international, right? I’d love to ride/show at the QH Congress in Ohio someday!  I'd also like to ride at Spruce Meadows, which is not international, but still a big deal to me.

Well, that didn't go as planned...

Fred and I did make it to the show yesterday.

Fred and Bailey ready to go!

We managed to do our halter class, getting a 2nd out of 4. Halter does a grand and reserve champ as well, where the first and second place horses from all halter classes go in together. We did not do well there but that’s ok, I had a bigger problem.

Fred was having trouble standing still. We ended up a bit out of line...lol

Working on setting up his feet.

He was slightly distracted by the goings-on outside the ring, but it was ok.  He put his ears up and looked cute.


Not only was my ankle sore (really sick of talking about that!) but this last week I developed a cyst in my right knee joint (same side as the ankle) and it made it very painful to walk ( it is called a baker's cyst and there isn't much you can do about it - since it is internal to the joint - until it bursts and goes away!). I had to scratch my showmanship and in hand trail as I couldn’t jog my horse in the deep sand, let alone walk him much. 

Slightly discouraged, but still trying to smile.



Fred didn’t seem to mind. He was tucked into a nice stall with 2nd cut hay, lots of friends nearby and the best horse treats. :-)

The best treats! Locally made and apparently very tasty!

I, on the other hand, was more than a bit bummed out about the whole day.  I did have fun visiting with friends and enjoying the nice weather.  Fred was a champ and loaded no problem.  My friend's difficult to load horse is now walking right on the trailer.  I'm pretty pleased with that.  Somehow we seem to have got it through his thick skull that the trailer isn't so bad.  I hope that trend continues, so my friend can get out and show more. 

This year has been frustrating to say the least. I don't want to be negative, but I do want to keep this blog somewhat realistic with my struggles.  It seems my health is causing more problems than the horse, which I think is a first.  lol  I knew going in to this season that Fred wouldn't be very competitive as I haven't had the ability to work him and prep him as I normally would.  The outcome of this show is that I need to focus on me and getting myself feeling better physically and mentally.  Not any easy task, but definitely important.  I think that will be my 2019 Q3 and Q4 goals!

And I also realllly need to go through my show kit and sort out where all my stuff is. A few things were missing from my toolbox that would have come in handy.  We have a long weekend coming up this weekend (yeah Canada Day!) so my plan is to go through all of my stuff and get organized.

Roxie my feline supervisor is on the job!

So, all in all, the show was a bust. However, it did highlight some things to work on.  And I had some fun...sort of...in between bouts of pouting and grumbling.  lol

Anyone have any tips on mental preparedness and such for shows and goals and life?