I'm talking about the My Horse game for iPad (a gift from graduation). I would not consider myself a gamer, though years ago I loved watching the video game review show on TechTV because they went on awesome tangents. Anyway, I never understood the appeal of Farmville-like games, especially since many of the people I know who play them already own horses or even LIVE on farms. Clicking on dinky little icons and having to wait hours to see the results seemed like work rather than play. But now...I see the light.
Wee! Look at her go! No dinky icons for me!
With no real-life responsibilities for the time being, I find myself logging in to My Horse four or five times a day about every other minute. I stayed up till 2am last night trying to get to Level 9 with my realistic-looking "brown" Quarter Horse MsCantBWrong (name inspired by the 90s song with the totally trippy video).
Er...ok, maybe not SO realistic. They have some kinks to work out with the animation. Little Miss Can't Be Wrong can switch leads all by herself in the field, but she flings up her head at the trot as if she is really ouchy. And no wonder, she kind of looks like her legs are broken or like she's doing Big Lick:
OUCH!
The great thing about My Horse is that it combines real-life aspects of horse ownership like:
mucking,
more mucking,
and grooming the muck off your horse
with AWESOME, totally made-up aspects of horse ownership. Like getting money for winning shows (that are free to enter), grooming, and even training your horse. Your horse can even make money for you by giving lessons, starring in TV shows, and modeling in photo shoots. Another realistic aspect of the game is that everything you have to buy is ridiculously expensive, so you're suckered into playing for another hour or fifteen to afford a blanket that will match your horse's boots.
"Money...makes life happy!" (one thousand magical unicorn sparkles to person who identifies the quote).
Aside from the insidious addictiveness of the game, I have two bones to pick. A game like this would be really great for teaching kids the basics about horses...like maybe actually using the correct words for horse colors, not "brown" or "red," but "bay" and "chestnut." It might also be a good idea to differentiate between the disciplines, ie. not having barrels in a jump class and actually using discipline-appropriate saddles. Maybe that's just me being nitpicky, but as a horse person it is kind of annoying to see this called a jump saddle:
What is this? Australian? Endurance? Definitely not a jumping saddle. Also...turtle?
The other part I don't like is the user interface when riding. It's really easy (think DDR controls), but the camera angle tends to switch RIGHT at the moment you need to click to jump or turn around a barrel. It's almost impossible to watch your pretty pony go over the jumps because you have to look at the meter at the bottom of the screen to get the timing right, and sometimes the camera angle actually obscures the action.
Jeez, what is with her tail?
I get lots of shinies, but I can't see the action!
So that's kind of annoying, but there are many hilariously weird parts of the game that redeem it for me. Like the available tack options:
I want this in real life.
This is the ONLY halfway normal-looking English saddle available.
Why do I have to wait till level 47 and pay 7650 coins to get a plain white saddle pad?
Also, you can buy a unicorn.
If you poke the unicorn, it rears up just like a real unicorn.
Each week I post at least one prompt. Respond as you wish on your blog or in a comment.
Or, just link your blog to mine if you
care to share something else about yourself.
The part I like most is having blog hoppers
complete their blog posts (or comments) by asking a question of us.
I am really enjoying answering your questions,
and look forward to seeing other responses, too.
I think it's a great way to have a conversation of sorts!
Link your post to the Hobby Horse Blog Hop
by using the Linky Tool below.
Click where indicated, just after it says
"You are next...."
Or...
Leave a comment with your thoughts on my blog, down below.
Visit other participating blogs on the list
and respond to their questions in your comments on their pages.
Hobby Horse Blog Hop Prompts - Week 14:
1.
Imagine that you are once again 8 years old. You have just received the
best present, ever. (Ponies and pets are not included on the gift
list!) What is it?
Ok, so based on the release date, I must have received this gift when I was 11 or 12, not 8, but I would say it was one of the coolest gifts I received as a child (besides my pet lovebirds of course).
One of the first e-book readers ever. via the Buxton Collection (a cool site documenting revolutionary technological devices)
I have always loved to read, so having a library of books only a dial-up connection away seemed completely amazing to me. I think one of the books I had on it was Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. However, figuring out how to download and buy the books was rather complicated, the selection was limited, and the device had a big battery pack on the back that made it uncomfortable to hold while laying in bed, so I can see why this early model didn't catch on. In recent years, I received a Kindle as a gift, which is even more convenient, but I haven't totally abandoned good old paper books.
2. What kinds of toys do your animals enjoy playing with?
I don't have any pets right now, but until a few months ago, I had a Betta fish named Fausto. He was a well-educated fish who lasted almost all 4 years of my college career, and one summer (when I had way too much free time on my hands) I taught him tricks. Unfortunately the only video I took of him swimming through hoops has long since expired on the FlipCamera site, but I have witnesses and I swear it happened. Fausto was an Olympian.
Very distinctive coloring.
A note Fausto left for my roommate once.
3. I know you have seen some sort of recreational activity on TV, or in real life, that you would just love to try. What is it?
Foxhunting!!! I have dreamed about it since I read Rita Mae Brown's foxhunting murder mystery series (when I was 12 and probably too young for it, but whatever).
The problem is the expense of joining a club and properly attiring myself. Oh yeah, and having a horse that is up to the challenge. And getting myself up to the challenge, though I'm sure I would begin with just capping for one day with the hilltoppers. So for now, this is a long-term goal that I am looking forward to.
My question: What is your favorite game to play with your animals?
I thought of this because my boyfriend was joking that if he ever gets a cat, it's going to like me more than him because he was raised by his mother's bevy of cats and thus would be competition for the cat. He wants attention only when he wants attention, and as a kid he always played "tag" with his cats, AKA chasing them around the house and probably scaring the crap out of them. If you've ever had a couple cats that tear around the house at 3am for no apparent reason, you get the idea.
I used to have a Malamute/Husky mix (he was adorable, but I won't be able to retrieve my pictures of him till Tuesday) that I would make jump courses for on my lawn. I think for me, the most fun is training animals and I see that as a kind of game. My horse in high school was a champ at "Stay," and he would not budge even if I left his stall door wide open.
I rode at Gentle Giants the day after I graduated, ready to work with Sailor and Levi. I didn't get around to Sailor that first day, but more on that later. Levi was fairly nervous while grooming, but he didn't actually do anything bad. Once I put him to work in the ring, though (short longe over irregularly spaced ground poles, like before), his brain turned on so I mounted up.
He has such a wonderful, swingy, energetic walk. I think the issue he was having in lessons must have been that students were direct reining or over-relying on their reins in some other way, perhaps clinging on his mouth during his (admittedly very big) trot. Levi does get a bit forward at the trot when he's warming up, but he'll
come right back to a less ground-covering stride if you give him a
half-halt with each stride after he's had a chance to warm up. He can take some contact--but only AFTER he gets a good rhythm going. He also responds much better to steering with leg, then opening inside rein, and a supporting outside rein. I think most of the drafts at GG are not at that level in their training yet, so perhaps the students aren't used to riding that way. It is actually probably a plus for them to get some experience on Levi, since learning to rely on your leg and seat before using your hands is a good lesson to learn. My instructor said once, "If you think you need more rein, double your leg," which is a very easy way to remember.
The funny thing about him is that he can't seem to get the right canter lead on the circle, but he gets it every time on the straightaway (tried both ways in both directions). So weird. I think it might have something to do with the fact that he will overbend on the circle if you don't keep him straight with the outside rein--not sure. Anyone have any ideas? I might try to video it sometime to diagnose the problem.
Anyway, I had such a great time with Levi that I completely forgot about my joblessness anxiety. Dapple grays just make my heart go pitter-patter, leaving no room for the insecurity that comes with being yet another jobless English major. I gave him a bath and let him graze while I pulled his mane to a respectable length, and generally fussed over what a good boy he was. When I put him back in his field, I saw that my phone had a missed call and a voicemail asking me to call back one of the companies I applied to.
Keep in mind--I had been checking my phone OBSESSIVELY for an email or call from this company for the entire weekend. I interviewed with them the Thursday before I graduated, and they said, "If we don't get back to you before you graduate on Monday, have a wonderful graduation!" I was both thrilled that they might get back to me so soon and terrified that I might have to face bad news on my big day. I called them back, and got voicemail since it was around lunchtime. I left a message, stuck my phone in the waistband of my breeches (First-world problem: iPhones don't fit in any pockets), and set myself to work putting away the ground poles and sweeping the aisleway.
About 30 minutes after I received an unrelated call (which scared the pants off me, I was so anxious) I received a call. THE call. That's right...the call offering me, the English major, a job as an Editorial Assistant one day after graduation. We chit-chatted about the particulars, I told them I was interested, and after I hung up, I shared the good news with the barn manager and then went back to sweeping clods of dirt and the shavings soaking up where Levi peed. My cheeks were burning with excitement. I'm actually glad I had to finish up sweeping (a relatively low-brainpower task) because if I had left the barn then, I probably would have gotten in an accident. There was no way I could think straight enough to ride Sailor--I left that for another day.
It was such a relief to know that I was on the road to independence. My dad took me out for crabs yesterday (parents are divorced--hence, separate graduation celebrations) and he said that me getting a job so soon after graduation made the whole English major thing seem worth it to him. In the past year or two I have grown more and more skeptical of the major since I let the tedious literature course requirements pile up on me all at once. I much preferred classes that had a clear benefit, like Copyediting, Concepts of Grammar, and Visual Rhetoric to classes where I simply repeated the read-analyze-discuss-read-analyze-discuss formula again and again. My most painful class was one where I had to read all 3 versions of Hamlet and both versions of King Lear (bet you didn't know that there are multiple Quarto and Folio versions of most of Shakespeare's works floating around out there) and compare them line-by-line, trying to create some significance out of one-word differences in versions of Shakespeare that most people will never read or see performed. Close reading is definitely useful to improve your detail-orientedness, but once you can do it, I don't really see the point in using it to meticulously obscure the meaning of passages that the author probably didn't give a second thought to. I guess what I'm saying is that maybe I should have studied journalism.
But, no matter. I have a job, and in the real world I have a feeling that results are more important than grades or majors. I've cleared the first obstacle, and now it's on to the next challenge...moving out. Eek.
All in all, a fairly painless experience. Traffic was nowhere near as bad as we thought it'd be; the ceremony was inside, and only two hours; and my medals announced my awesomeness with every jingly step. We even got in some good pictures before my hair (which I straightened so I wouldn't have to do it in the morning) started to curl weirdly and poof out from the rain.
From perfectly coiffed in the car...
...to this. But I couldn't leave without rubbing Testudo's nose one last time for luck.
I skipped the main graduation yesterday to go to the barn, of course. Gentle Giants has a GORGEOUS, HUGE new facility (109 acres) that they are planning to host shows at eventually. I can't wait; it's going to be awesome, and I'm so glad the rescue grows bigger and better every year. I have only been volunteering there 4 years, but it has changed so much that the humble days of the dirt floor barn and the stalls that flooded in heavy rain seem very far away. I mean, now all of the tack is labeled. The bridles are in figure eights. Volunteers log every ride to track each horse's progress. We're movin' on up!
Okay, gushy blahblahblah aside, I have two new projects. Unfortunately I don't think I'll be able to get out to the rescue more than twice a week with my part-time work schedule as it is, but at least this week I'm off and I hope to work them consistently.
Sailor: Apparently he is shaking his head, scaring beginners, stuff like that. It sounds like he has similar problems as a free lease horse I had one summer. Not bad, just needs a reminder that not all riders are passengers and that he can't just decide to stop paying attention. I'll take a look at his bit too--maybe that is a reason for the headshaking. I saw him ridden briefly on Sunday and it didn't seem like he was horrible so that bodes well.
Levi: Poor Levi.
"Are you going to let me out? Here, let me show you where the gate is. It's right here, see? See? Please save me. I swear the other guys in here are going to shank me. What if I try and look cute? Will that work? I swear I'll be good."
I took this video of him sadly pacing along the fence after I was done with him. Let me explain.
So the new farm is HUGE. It took me about 10 minutes of walking just to get to his field, and that's with a shortcut through a creek (which sucked my boot into the muck). Christine (the founder of Gentle Giants) had explained that since the stalls are not quite ready for the wear and tear of drafts leaning on them to scratch the spots they can't reach, the horses were living outside full-time. Levi, formerly a favorite school horse, took this new freedom to mean that he didn't have to do anything he didn't want to ever again.
Cut to a whinnying, tense, more-and-more-likely-to-bolt-back-to-his-buddies-with-every-step Levi. He was convinced every step away from his field was one step closer to certain death. So we circled/mini-lunged every time he threw up his head and stopped to call to them...which was A LOT. Of course this bad behavior was in front of potential adopters that Christine was showing around. They seemed like pretty decent horsepeople though so I think they understood that sometimes freakouts happen. And sometimes you have to stop every five steps to circle because your horse is having a fit.
So once I got him up to the barn, I stuck him in the round pen to chill out for a second. This did not happen. I came up with a plan. I would longe him to get his attention back, then ride briefly to evaluate where he was in regard to sensitivity to the aids.
While I was longeing him, he was great. He reached long and low, and he was paying attention to his work. Whenever I brought him down to a walk and switched sides, though, he would lose focus and freak out, calling to his buddies again. Eventually (20 minutes-ish) I got him to a point where I thought he was paying attention consistently (mostly trot with a little bit of canter when he tried to brake).
I led him into the barn and hooked him up to the cross-ties, which he is totally used to. But not that day apparently. Head high, neck muscles tense, the fear of death written plain in his eyes. He whinnied like an idiot some more. He literally had the poop scared out of him--gross, liquidy poo in the nice new aisleway! His brain was not on so I decided not to ride. Instead, I made a little obstacle course in the ring with cavalletti and traffic cones spaced irregularly on the circle so he would have to look down, think, and adjust while I longed him at the trot.
This worked! I was so pleased. We even ended with a nice relaxed walk on the longe. Unfortunately...Levi's antics mean that he is now exiled from his former field and he's going to be switched around every so often so he doesn't get over-attached. Hopefully additional work will help too.
Ok, so that was a lot longer than I thought it would be, but here's the upshot: it looks like Levi will pay attention when I am actually challenging him to do something. He'll probably take any opportunity to decide other things are more interesting, so I'll need to keep his attention with lots of changes of direction, transitions, and riding him forward. The goal is to get him to the point where he can be used in intermediate lessons again.
As promised in my "firsts" blog hop post, here are some pictures from my first show (which was apparently at age 13 and not 12 based on the timestamp). I didn't feel like figuring out how to scan pictures to my email, so instead I propped up the photos against the wall, laid down on the floor, and angled my phone to take pictures of the pictures without weird shadows or brightness from the ceiling light.
...because that was definitely easier than figuring out how to use the scanner.
Pre-show prep: note the smudge on his front left where I was a little too liberal with the hoof polish.
Right after the warmup ride. Time to hurry up and wait.
I was really good at keeping my chin up. Not so much at avoiding looking terrified.
Hmm...maybe being on the wrong lead wasn't the only reason we didn't place in jumping!
Well, that was cute.
Going to get some barn time in tomorrow so hopefully that will get the wheels turning for a more substantive post. In the meantime, check out my graduation cap!
Whew. I just got out of my last exam ever (at least for a few years). After the initial "Hooray! I just finished my exam and it's a beautiful day!" feeling, I realized I have no idea what I'm doing. My fate (AKA whether I'll be living with my parents indefinitely and whether I need to ramp back up my job search again) is in the hands of a couple interviewers who I'm waiting on decisions from.
So I'm going to do another blog hop.
Welcome to the Blog Hop.
I hope you can join in the fun.
In case you are new... or as a reminder:
Each week I post at least one prompt. Respond as you wish on your blog or in a comment.
Or, just link your blog to mine if you
care to share something else about yourself.
The part I like most is having blog hoppers
complete their blog posts (or comments) by asking a question of us.
I am really enjoying answering your questions,
and look forward to seeing other responses, too.
I think it's a great way to have a conversation of sorts!
Link your post to the Hobby Horse Blog Hop
by using the Linky Tool below.
Click where indicated, just after it says
"You are next...."
Or...
Leave a comment with your thoughts on my blog, down below.
Visit other participating blogs on the list
and respond to their questions in your comments on their pages.
Hobby Horse Blog Hop Prompts - Week 13:
This
week I'm going to focus on a few of the things I heard from Buck that
made me think about what I have been doing, or want to do with my
horses.
1.
As Buck was working with a horse and throwing a rope so it touched the
horse all over its body, and tickled its legs, Buck commented that we
must prepare our horses for the unthinkable. What 'unthinkable(s)' have
you tried to prepare your horse to deal with, and how did you proceed?
I once did a judged trail ride for which I was NOT prepared; does that count? These were the challenges:
Open and close a gate without removing your hand: I had a height advantage riding a draft...but guess who doesn't neck rein or do lateral movements very well? I got the gate open but I had to take my hand off.
Walk across a tarp and drop a golf ball into a bucket: We did great at this actually. I had been practicing with tarps since I knew that would definitely be one of the tests.
Ride over the horsey teeter-totter: Wasn't going to happen. That thing was NOT built for a draft. I don't think it was even wide enough for him to stand on so we didn't do that challenge.
Back your horse in an L-shaped chute: We tried! We were so close! But after the bend in the L, Stalin stepped out of the chute since he wasn't backing completely straight.
Two-hour treasure hunt ride: This was a change from past years of the judged trail ride. Apparently it only used to take about 30 minutes. Stalin is over 20 and he is nowhere near fit enough to ride for two hours so we only did like 15 minutes worth of the trail.
Judged pleasure trail riding is not my calling.
2.
Buck suggested that his assistant "rub bald spots" on the horse. He
asked us to think about how a mare would comfort her foal by nuzzling
and licking him, and how that might feel. In addition to rubbing your
horse, have you found ways to comfort him/her when he or she is tense or
needs reassurance?
I go into "man voice"--very low and with drawn-out vowels. Eaaa-seeeey. That's a goooood boy. Gooood boy. Etc.
And this doesn't really help with tension, but I love blowing my breath into a horse's nostrils. They just perk up, totally at attention, and I think they look funny.
3. When asked how to make
a horse stand still, Buck replied that you really can't. He suggested
that the rider "use the energy for a worthy cause" and make the horse
move his feet; make the horse 'do' something. Then, after doing that for
a time, the horse might be more inclined to stand still. Does your
horse stand willingly? What types of exercises might you ask your horse
to perform instead of standing still?
With Joey, it depends on the day. He has a tendency to walk off after I mount up, so first I ask for a halt with my seat, voice, hands, etc. Then if he doesn't listen, I up the rein pressure. Once I get a halt for like one second I move off into a forward, energetic walk.
My question: What is the most valuable lesson you've learned from a trainer outside your chosen discipline?
As a H/J rider who has a tendency to lose stirrups (I even won a jump class with only one stirrup once), I like this dressage tip: The stirrups are only for posting.
And an interesting fact you blog hoppers may like: "Buckaroo" comes from the Spanish word "vaquero," which was basically the equivalent of a cowboy. In Spain, "vaqueros" can also refer to jeans, which of course originally came from the vaqueros of old. The Spanish V can sometimes sound like B (ba-ke-ro) so it became Anglicized as "buckaroo."
Answer
one or all of the prompts. Link back to Living a Dream's post. Visit
other blogs. And don't forget to ask a question of everyone else!
This week we are asked about some of our "firsts". This might include:
pony
pet
child
riding lesson
job
home-cooked meal
speeding ticket
??? You decide! Anything goes!
I'd love to hear (and
see) you first blog post. Who, or what, got you started in blogging?
When was your first post? If you care to, link to it for us!
First pet:
My first pets were a string of parakeets, all named Tweety, Featherbrain, or Fly Away Home (that was a movie about geese that came out when I was little). I don't really remember them, but I've been told that I sat on one of them and killed it. Um...oops? Toddler me was not the brightest.
First riding lesson:
I'm not sure that I remember the exact lesson, but I began my riding career at age 11 at J-Mar Stables in Monkton, MD. I was not a natural. My instinctual position was the fetal position, hunched over and bouncing like a potato. I do remember that we always stopped by Grohl's market for goodies after the lesson though since it was so far away from where we lived and we got hungry.
First job:
I was a veterinary assistant at a cat and dog clinic about two miles from my house. I couldn't yet drive when I started, so on my first day, I walked to work in a long-sleeved blouse and slacks...without having eaten breakfast or drank anything...on a summer day...in humid, stickily hot Maryland. I was fine for a few hours, then colors started looking weird while one of the Vet Techs was trying to teach me how to fold surgical drapes. I asked to be excused to go to the break room, and all of a sudden I was laying on the floor in the arms of the guy my age they had hired at the same time as me. He caught me so I didn't hit my head as I fainted.
Maybe it would have been romantic if he wasn't so creepy/insistent. It took me weeks to get him to stop offering me rides home. (This sounds mean in hindsight, but he was seriously annoying.)
I thought it was going to be a dream job that would be my first step towards being a veterinarian. I'm one week away from graduating with an English degree, so it didn't quite work out that way. Aside from changing my career plans later on, I was terrible at the job. Although I was pretty strong for my age from karate classes, I was still only 5'4" and barely 100 lbs. Restraining panicked Mastiffs while they got their shots was not my forte, and cleaning up an endless supply of animal body fluids gets old reeeeealllly fast. Unless it's horse poop! Then it's a great way to get moving in the morning.
First blog post: Here. I started my blog trying to ride on the coat-tails of Gentle Giants being featured on SnarkyRider. It worked at first! But now my pageviews are nowhere near that level so after graduation I'm dedicating myself to the pursuit of internet fame.
First car:
I walked home from the bus stop one day my sophomore year of high school, pressed the code for our garage, and inside was my mom and a white Ford Focus. It was a great surprise :) There were of course some stipulations--I had to chauffer my little brother home from private school and occasionally I traded cars with my mom when she needed better gas mileage. Not a bad tradeoff for a high schooler. Although these days, that car needs to earn its way back into my graces since it's been so finicky and problem-prone lately.
Tales from the Trail's question: In what way are you spoiled with regard to horse ownership?
I don't own a horse but I feel pretty spoiled to be able to ride for free. I am so happy that I've finally accrued the skills (more or less) to ride rescue horses and to exercise theraputic riding horses.
My addition: First horse show.
Mine was a totally surreal day that did a 180 from awesome to terrible. I was 12 years old, and a family friend took me to a 4-H show on "SoCo" AKA Southern Comforts (it was years later before I found out that was a liquor! I just thought it was a nice name.), a big old chestnut TB gelding from my lesson barn. In the pictures I look so nervous and pale (no scanner here so will post some later). I got two third-place ribbons out of three classes. I didn't place in the jumping class because SoCo picked up the wrong lead, but I didn't expect to place at all in my first show! I was ecstatic and I couldn't wait to show my mom when she came home from work.
When I came home, there was a white van with the Mapaw Husky Rescue logo on the side. My heart dropped. My mom had threatened to return the dog we had had for the past 6 months, but I didn't think she would actually do it. Sonic was an incredibly smart Wooly Husky (again, will post photos after this week). He knew Sit, Shake, and even Go Upstairs/Downstairs. I would often set up jump courses out of brooms and chairs in our yard to burn off his energy--he would have made a great agility dog. However, he had severe separation anxiety and had broken out of 3 metal crates, scratched up one of our doors, escaped multiple times (he could unlock the basement door) and done a number on our carpets. I still think we should have just kept working with him or medicated him, but I think my mom's point of view was that she wanted a dog to lessen stress, not add to it. It was still really sad so I remember my first show day with mixed feelings.
Sorry my responses were a little depressing this week! I have a lot of tragic pet stories but I figured people would have interesting memories from their first show day.
This past Tuesday I used up the last lesson that my Mom gave me for my birthday. I rode Clyde, and actually got him to canter on the first try, which was a BIG confidence-booster! Apparently he has been in consistent work so I am sure that was part of it. Whatever the reason was, starting the lesson on the right foot allowed me to keep thinking positively throughout.
The next challenge was to get him to canter right when I asked. My instructor set up two cavalletti on the circle so that I could trot up to the "jump," then sit, cue, and land a canter out of the second "jump". I did fine on the first couple tries, and then she upped the challenge, asking me to land the canter after the first cavalletti and then keep cantering around the circle.
I didn't do so well with that. I couldn't quite get the canter immediately, and when I did, Clyde would brake about 2/3 around the circle before I turned toward the cavalletti.
"Fol-low, relax your back, feel the rhythm," my instructor called out.
I realized that this is the same advice my mom, who grew up on a dairy farm but is not a horse person, has been telling me after my lessons for years.
I'm the first to admit that I am not good at accepting advice. When my mom told me, "Carli, you have to feel the rhythm of the horse," time and time again after my lessons, I dismissed her. "Rhythm" was a frou-frou word that had no place in the exacting world of clean approaches, increasing impulsion (a concept I didn't really understand), and counting strides. I was the one who decided the rhythm and the pace, not the horse. I ignored her advice, certain that my hunter/jumper instructor knew better than she did.
I didn't hear about the training pyramid until I took a trial dressage lesson at age 19, after having taken hunter/jumper lessons for seven years (age 11 to age 18).
Duh! Rhythm is Step #1 before you can get to anything else! It's still something I'm working on and hopefully when I lease or buy my first horse, I will be able to move up through the levels.
Thank you Mom, for seeing something that I was too stubborn to. Maybe I should listen to you more...
So considering that the whole point of this blog is to tell you all about how I've been able to ride on the cheap in college, I figured it was high time to tell you the story of a 14hh Haflinger named Howard County Chopper. Affectionately known as Chopper, Chops, or the Chopster, she is my favorite pony of all time, and a rescue project horse that I trained for a winter.
She earned her name on Dec 28, 2010, when I attended my first auction ever at New Holland. From what I had heard, it was one of the worst kill auctions on the East Coast, although it had cleaned up its act in recent years. We Gentle Giants volunteers were on the lookout for drafts at risk of the meat man. It wasn't as dismal as I thought it would be--the horses were tied up in two rows facing the walls where they had water and hay available, but it was definitely not a happy environment. Some of the horses were in bad shape, especially hard keepers like the OTTBs, who were underweight and nervous with all the commotion and unfamiliar horses. I knew this was the last stop before Mexico or Canada for the horses who were not lucky enough to be purchased by private owners or rescues, and it broke my heart that we couldn't help them all.
Chopper caught the Gentle Giants riding instructor's eye when another person at the auction tried to pet her. The appeal was undeniable--she was a ball of winter pony fluff, except for her ears which someone had shaved bald to show that she clipped (not exactly humane in freezing weather...). Chopper lashed out at her would-be admirer, practically taking a chunk out of her arm.
When the instructor went up to check her out, Chops was all lovey dovey. She knew a good home when she saw it. I promised Christine, the owner of Gentle Giants, that I would put some miles on her over my winter break from school. She was ours for $350.
She was once used to pull firewood, but someone must have hopped on her a couple times, since she knew the cues for forward and whoa. Her steering was seeeerrriously rusty though. Here's a video of her second ride. She looks so strung out and small. I remember she would just rocket around at a supertrot until you "ran out of quarters."
I worked with her all that winter, and she soon settled into life at the rescue. When Spring Break rolled around, she had transformed into the Barbie pony I spent my childhood dreaming of.
Even I, as a HJ girl, was not going to pull that gorgeous blonde mane so I braided her up most days.
I knew that I was too tall and that I looked rather silly on her. But I adored her. She had a wonderful temperament, loved attention, and was very willing but also smart enough to make you work for it. Though she improved tremendously with steering, sometimes those issues mysteriously resurfaced when she decided to be done for the day...
Right now Chops is either in a foster home or back at Gentle Giants (can't remember)--she was adopted out on trial, but developed lameness issues during the trial period so it was a no go. I hope she does find a little girl to love her, to kiss her sweet little nose, and to get her prettied up for occasional leadline classes. She is such a special horse, and so easy to love. Even if she isn't as sound as she once was, I think she proves that rescued horses have just as much to give as others.
And funnily enough, she hasn't bitten anyone since the day we rescued her.
Go Chops Go!
EDIT 6/7/2012: Chops is at Gentle Giants with persistent lameness...so although leadline classes are probably not in her future, she does have an early retirement and a safe home, which is just as good.
