This.

Posted on April 1, 2015 by Britt

If you haven’t picked up on it yet- I tend to be that person that has something stupid happen to her in public. I’m pretty sure there’s an award out there with my name on it for people who have ripped their pants in public the most amount of times. And on a horse? The opportunity for disaster is exponential.

Case in evidence? This, this, and this.

I like to try and take it all in stride, and maintaining a sense of humor in the wake of your latest embarrassment is something I get to practice a lot. Humility, y’all. If you don’t have it, your horse will be happy to teach it to you.

So this article written by Kristin Carpenter really spoke to me. Not only does she describe perfectly what it’s like to be that person, but she also encapsulates all the things that I love most about eventing- the rush, the horses, and the comradery.

I may look like a dummy sometimes doing it, but this is eventing, and this is my sport.

Week One and Done

Posted on March 31, 2015 by Britt

Truthfully, without having ridden my horse in almost two weeks, I am finding myself a bit un-inspired in general. Luckily (luckily?) there are some house projects starting tomorrow that will occupy my time, and maybe a blog post or two.

Bonus- while stopping by my parent’s house I found this gem of my father riding, circa mid 1980s

Otherwise, today marks the end of week 1 of Foster’s ulcer treatment. Tonight at the barn I’m going to assess how Foster is doing by throwing him on the lunge with a full stomach, per the vet’s orders, and see if he wants to move forward at all. If he’s not ready, I’ll try again in a couple days.

I stopped by on my way home from Savannah yesterday to make sure all his limbs were intact and thought he looked a little more bright eyed than he did last week. Maybe he was just excited to show off his war-paint (aka mud), or maybe he was glad to see me after my lengthy absence. Who knows.

Post with the lunging results tomorrow!

Let’s Discuss: Your ideal horse

Posted on March 30, 2015 by Britt

Do you have a type? I know I do. When I was horse hunting, I struggled finding a horse that fit my requirements. Foster is legitimately the only horse I was really interested in. Here was my list of requirements:

A good brain. Hands down, the most important aspect to me was a willing and quiet participant that I could get along with even after the ride is over. Plus, IMO a quiet brain is a trainable brain.
Have a kind eye No piggy expressions or jerk faces need apply. See above.
15.3 hh – 16.3 hh. I’m only 5’4″- I wanted something that wouldn’t make me terrified to ride up to a 3’3″ fence but also wasn’t too far from the ground.
Built uphill Not only would an uphill conformation make dressage + jumping easier, but also provide some security to a girl with 10+ years experience riding draft crosses!

Decent movement Need not be the next Totilas, but a little bit of suspension would be great.
4-9 years old This was on my list, as I wanted to be able to jump sooner rather than later. I ended up compromising on this one as Foster was advertised as a 3 yr old, which I believed until I had the dentist out (he was actually 4)
Clean history History repeats itself, as they say- so I wanted to start out with a blank slate if at all possible
Good jumper Another compromise when I bought Foster since (I thought) he was 3- no jumping yet, I judged his jumping ability by the way he moved
Preferably a gelding Not the *most* important aspect, but I knew I got along better with geldings in general
Be in my budget Champagne on a beer budget, anyone? I’ll take a glass of Andre, please.

It took me a solid 3 months of hourly scouring every horse sales site known to man before I found Foster’s ad on dreamhorse.com. Even though I ended up compromising the jumping and the age, he was the closest fit to my requirements. So I jumped in my car that weekend and ran up to Maryland, hopped aboard for a test ride, and the rest is history!

Foster as seen in his sales ad

What aspects of your horse led you to him/her? If you were to go horse-shopping tomorrow, what would your list look like?

Trailer Trailer

Posted on March 26, 2015 by Britt

[Insert better title here]

Thanks all for the kind words and suggestions for Foster. I passed them along with his alfalfa mash last night, and I’m sure he appreciated it. 🙂

I won’t lie, I’m a bit down in the doldrums about the situation, but I’m sure that pales in comparison to the discomfort poor pony is in. Foster can have as long as he needs to get right again.

Foster’s Chariot

Meanwhile, my trailer is off to be serviced, so you know I’m committed to not going anywhere for a while. Thank you, tax refund, for helping a girl get her trailer looked at.

Reuniting with my Charlie’s Angels! Woot!

In other news, I’ll be heading down to the beautiful city of Savannah tomorrow for a Bachelorette weekend! I suppose that means I will get to practice talking about things other than horses. Meanwhile, don’t judge what you see on my Instagram feed for the next few days. K? Thanks.

See y’all on the flip side! Have a good weekend!

The Verdict Is In

Posted on March 25, 2015 by Britt

It’s confirmed: we have ulcers!

Or rather, we, as in Foster, has one grade 3 ulcer and two grade 4 ulcers, the latter of which are bleeding they are so deep. Poor guy. (See photo here)

Still, even though no one wants their creature to be in pain, I am so relieved to be able to put a name finally to all the odd behavior of late. Now we can work on fixing it.

Homeboy is going to get his ulcer treatment and lots of sympathy from me for the next month or so. We’ll re-scope in 4 weeks to be sure they are gone.

Sleepy post-scoping Foster

In the world of nutrition, after hearing from many, including Emily from The Exquisite Equine, about the powers of Vitamin E supplement, Foster is also starting a new supplement program. We’re introducing him to Elevate W.S., a water-soluble version, for the first 40 days and then he gets transferred to a powder version that he will stay on indefinitely. It seems other horses have done really well and changed body condition when put on E, and I hope Foster will do the same. Here’s to more photos of my horse’s derriere!

Our spring season has had a bit of a kink thrown in it with yesterday’s confirmation, but it’s hard to be disappointed when I can look forward to my horse getting back to his normal, cheerful self. We’ll be foregoing the Combined Training show at MacNairs on April 12, and probably also a planned cross country schooling at the Horse Park.

Instead, it looks as though I may school the Training course in May followed by a CT the next day (if fitness allows) and proceed with Novice at the Virginia Horse Trials a couple weeks later. Then our official Training debut would be in July! When all is said and done, we’re just a little delayed.

Foster will be getting the rest of the week completely off to let the UlcerGard do its job, and I’ll be searching the web for a suitable Nibble Net to slow down his intake of hay and ideally help prevent any other ulcers. That among other options for keeping future out breaks at bay.

Expect annoying posts about my horse’s every mood swing for the next couple weeks. Looking forward to seeing positive changes!

Today’s the Day

Posted on March 24, 2015 by Britt

As if the universe was trying to make things easier for me, it just so happens that my mother and my husband share the same birthday. In fact, there are many shared birthdays between our families- his sister and my brother, his grandmother and my father… Anyways. Luckily I was already good at remembering birthdays, but I’ll take any universal help I can get.

Birthday kids

But before I get to wine and dine my beloved tonight, and pester him about what he’ll be blogging about next, I have a rather important appointment this morning.

No grumpy Foster photos today sorry

You guessed it- Mister Fosterpants is getting himself scoped.

I only wish I could have done it last week, or even the moment I decided to scratch from the show. But alas, spring shots dominated the vet’s schedule and so wait we did.

Happy times in Italy

I am desperate to see ulcers today, because the alternative to me is going down a rabbit hole of what-if’s and why’s that I’d much rather avoid.

A day of change! Today’s the day!

Carolina International 3*

Posted on March 23, 2015 by Britt

The weather could not have been more perfect for the fun day spent at the Carolina Horse Park. We arrived just in time to see the start of the 3* division go. This meant I had missed Mr. Medicott in the 2* (one of my favorite horses everrr) but it was hard to be disappointed when Olympic level riders immediately started leaving the gate.

The new lens was a great big fail. Here’s Karen and Mr. Medicott again, Rolex 2012

After enjoying a mimosa (or two) at the water complex, which was riding really well sans one rider fall at the corner out (the horse hit the corner with its knee and the rider just popped over the handle bars, no harm done), we meandered over to the Stonehenge complex. After a while a gentleman wearing the staff badge came over to see how the complex (a vertical through the ‘stones’ then three strides to a corner) was riding. It was soon clear that it was none other than Hugh Lochure, the course designer himself.

Boyd Martin and Remington, Rolex 2012

Happily, Hugh was more than willing to chat with me about the current miasma of finger-pointing that is going on in eventing at the moment. He also shared a few fun facts regarding his course and some of the riders running it. For instance, the famous Stonehenge complex was originally meant to represent a different set of standing stones from Scotland (his native country). When the inaugural 3* was planned, a sponsor came forward with a farm called Stonehenge, and the decision was made then to arrange the fences in honor of that sponsor.

We also talked about some of the safety aspects currently being developed in the sport. Frangible pins, collapsing tables, and air vests are all becoming common sights to see at the higher levels. But not all riders and venues adopt these changes. It turns out that Michael Pollard doesn’t like the way the air vest feels, and so he rides without, even at the 3* level. Hugh also compared the adoption of ‘safety fences’ (my term) in Europe versus the US. It seems that across the ocean, frangible pin and collapsable fences are more common than over here, where venues are not as likely to invest in them.

Phillip Dutton and Fernhill Fugitive, Rolex 2012

Local hero Kelsey Briggs (whose horse, The Gentleman Pirate, has made a miraculous recovery from a broken neck and just ran the Intermediate course) also came over for a bit and we all regaled her with memories of local eventing. It was a good day for Kelsey, who came second in her division with Pirate, and a great day for Phillip Dutton, who walked away with $35,000 after winning with I’m Sew Ready to end on his dressage score.

After the 3* completed, we watched some of the Advanced group warm up (seeing the riders take a huge rolltop at an angle was a kick in the pants reminder to school this at home!) and then peeked through the shopping tents before departing for home. I snagged myself a new pair of mesh Roeckl gloves and a whole new set of fun memories- can’t wait to return to this exciting new event next year!

Off to Southern Pines!

Posted on March 20, 2015 by Britt

Well, friends, not much else to report this week. Fosterpants pulled a shoe yesterday and what with the potential ulcers, I’ve left him mostly to his own devices. I’m sure he won’t be too pleased with seeing both the farrier and the vet for spring shots today, but at least he gets another day off.

One of my favorite pairs, Allison Springer and Arthur (Rolex 2012)

Tomorrow myself and a bunch of eventing groupies are headed to the Carolina Horse Park to watch some cross country! There are plenty of familiar faces to see as riders get in prep runs for Rolex next month. And I’m looking forward to finally testing out my new lens as well- I haven’t been able to stalk riders like this since 2012, as you can see from these photos.

Becky Holder will be at Carolina, this time with Can’t Fire Me (Courageous Comet Rolex 2012)

It’s supposed to be right on 70 degrees and a gorgeous day for playing paparazzi and ~~maybe~~ doing a little shopping. Of course I’ll come back feeling inspired and want to hop on my pony and go, but I’m trying to resist anything until after he gets scoped on Tuesday.

Ermahgerd Mr. Medicott, hopefully we will see him in the 2* with P-Dutty

I hope you guys all have a great weekend! Go eventing!

The Skull Cap Debate

Posted on March 19, 2015 by Britt

As I briefly mentioned in my Competitor’s Toolbox: Equipment post, the British Eventing Association has banned fixed-peak helmets from cross country. [Read EN’s post with the news here]

Frequent image contributor J (rocking a skull cap) and the handsome Jasper / PC: High Time Photography

Many US eventers are already wearing skull caps, and some like myself, are not. Besides my vanity thinking that peaked helmets are slightly more attractive, I just don’t have the dollars right now to dole out on a new helmet. Especially when I just walked a hole into my paddock boots. (Durn it)

PC: High Time Photography

I used to have a skull cap at one point, but never used it, and now the padding is so deteriorated that the thing wobbles on my head. I’m not saying I won’t make the move to a skull cap, but it’s not going to happen in the next couple months for sure.

But I’m curious, what do you guys think? Eventers- what are you using/plan to use this season? And for non-eventers, let’s pretend- if you were about to go cross country, what would you don?

Confident Riding

Posted on March 18, 2015 by Britt

When I was 6 years old, I was kicked in the stomach by a rather naughty pony named Gomez who obviously thought I was holding him up on the way to his dinner. For a long time after, though I still loved horses, I became very anxious around them, particularly riding. It wasn’t until middle school that my family acquired a bombproof Haflinger that I gained confidence on, before moving on to the slightly more forward thinking Tanner, and finally, graduating to a ‘real’ horse and taking on eventing with Merry.

Merry going Novice @ The Fork

Even though my confidence in the saddle has come in leaps and bounds since the days of W-T-C, sometimes I find myself needing a good pep talk. Self doubt loves to creep in, especially when on on my own in the arena. All those what-if’s buzzing around can be distracting and worse case scenarios can easily start to haunt every other thought. As part of training my own horse, I am required to be a leader as well as a partner to him, and keeping confidence is something I am aware of all the time.

So this article on 5 Things Confident Riders Avoid was particularly interesting to me.

The areas I can improve directly relate to problems #1 and #5 in the article. I try hard to break the cycle of negative thinking, but it’s my greatest issue. This directly relates to my avoiding certain spooky situations. For instance, Foster likes to spook at horses or humans walking up the path to the outdoor arena. I’ve been guilty of allowing him to stop and watch them come up- instead, I should press on with our work. While I know as I’m doing it that it’s wrong, I haven’t made myself correct the behavior entirely.

We talked recently about the rider’s mental game and how it leads to successful showing experiences. But being confident and focused on the positive can certainly apply to everyday riding too, especially when it comes to stepping out of your comfort zone.

What do you do to feel confident in the saddle? What are your fears and anxieties that you are currently trying to master?