Trail riding > blogging

Yes I do still enjoy blogging...but now that it's nice outside, riding and being outside take precedence :)

You can see where his pasture buddy took a pretty major chomp out of him above his elbow

Midnight and I went on our FIRST trail ride yesterday and it was a big success. It was originally supposed to be last week, but we got rained out...so when the girl I had planned to ride with happened to show up at the farm around the same time as me on Sunday and breezily asked, "Hey, so do you want to go on that hack?" it took all I had not to have a fit and go,  "UH...YES! omg omg omg!!!!!!!!!!" This girl is around my age, but is an ex-Pony Clubber who has had horses most of her life. Things like this are not a novelty to her, but even though we mostly kept it to a walk (ground was still semi-wet) it was a huge deal to me.

Not only was Midnight a perfect gentleman (despite some unplanned canter as we trotted up a hill), just the concept of having barn buddies to hack out with is just awesome to me.  Yes, I've had barn friends, but for one reason or another, especially through college as I flip-flopped between barns depending on the time and money I had available, the barn has never felt so much like a second home to me as it does now.

I don't know how many of you can relate, but growing up I didn't really go to the barn to make friends. I had group lessons once a week at a very fancy hunter/jumper barn where many of the girls my age had $100k show ponies, and I always felt like I was on the lower tier. I felt lucky just to ride at all, but it always seemed like they were progressing faster than I was, going to shows all the time, wearing Tailored Sportsmans, and generally forming this amazing Saddle Club-like clique that I couldn't be a part of without my own horse.

When I did start free-leasing a horse, and I was at the barn more often, I realized that it was just that--a snobbish clique--but for many years my main motivation for going to the barn was to avoid human interaction and just hang out with my horse. Can you tell I had terrible social skills was really shy?

Anyway, I know it's still early days yet, but I feel so at home at this barn.  The facilities are great (can you say indoor sprinkler system?), there are a bunch of amazingly talented riders (eventers going Intermediate, dressage riders going Grand Prix--no I am not kidding), yet everyone is incredibly nice and while I'm sure there are little barn dramas here and there, it's a really relaxed environment. People hang out and drink beer and box wine while watching lessons...I am in love. 


The only difficult aspect (*coughcoughhumblebrag*) is trying not to compare myself to a lot of the boarders who seem to be always taking lessons with prestigious trainers, and going off to all kinds of shows and events. I have to keep reminding myself that I'm only 23 and I (perhaps stupidly) chose to work in publishing. Maybe I should have gone the medical route and got a job at NIH like so many of the boarders seem to have done (seriously, it's weird how many of them work there). But with the money I have now, the half-lease works out well, and I can afford it comfortably while still paying rent, bills and loans, plus saving, investing, and eating. I'm lucky that the lessons here are way cheaper than the ones I was doing before, so that I can do one a week. I'm doing this for fun...I can work up to being able to afford all the extras.

Sorry if this post was mushy. I had to humblebrag somewhere.

BTW, nice article over at New York magazine about those of us who never grew out of the horse thing.

AND...forgot to mention that this weekend I am taking a reining lesson out with a friend of mine who rides Western. Should be interesting!

Life post-graduation

...has been pretty sweet so far.

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.

Making the most of lessons...trying, at least

So for my 22nd birthday this past March, my mother was kind enough to gift me with four riding lessons with the trainer I've been working with for the past six months. I spent the first lesson riding Stan, who is a bit of a Frankenhorse, and very spooky, but never genuinely does anything bad (although apparently I am the only person he is spooky for--which just makes me feel great). Since I do not take lessons very often, I think I put a lot of pressure on myself to get my money's worth and it just adds to my tension when I don't do what I'm supposed to, either from fear or muscle memory, or both (for example, acting as if Stan is ALWAYS going to freak out in the scary corner of the ring).

Just because he is a Frankenhorse with a parrot mouth, crooked legs, and a roached back...

...doesn't mean he isn't handsome! This is why we call him Manly Stanley!

I love riding Stan because once we work through the spooky stuff, he is very responsive. However, I do want to make the most of my lessons and challenge myself so that I can actually grow.

Clyde is the first horse I rode at this trainer's farm until he threw me and then was lame for several weeks (related incidents, but I can't remember exactly what the injury was). He is ridiculously finicky about his canter transitions, and WILL NOT canter unless you:

1. Sit deep and half-halt,
2. switch your weight to the inside and bend with the inside leg and rein,
3. then put on the outside leg at the EXACT RIGHT MOMENT of his stride. I am not good at this. At all. So he usually just ends up strung out in a super-fast trot and I usually end up out of breath from clucking and all hunched up from trying to do too many things at once.

Clyde says, "Check out my tattoo!"

So what with Clyde's being lame, Stan being an easier ride, and not having money for lessons until recently, I haven't ridden Clyde for several months. I have been reading the fantastically useful Build a Better Athlete!: 16 Gymnastic Exercises by Leslie Webb, though, and Webb recommends cueing for the canter (step 3 from above) by swinging your lower leg slightly behind the girth and sort of brushing the horse's side with your calf instead of squeezing. I've been doing that with Joey, who tends to rush into the canter and he responds immediately to it--maybe because he is a dressage pony and I guess they tend to do more swinging around with the lower leg for various cues.

Long story short--I wanted to ride Clyde for my lesson so I could try this magical new canter cue. In my first lesson, I went in totally confident and I was able to regain control and calmness after Stan spooked once at the Evil Demon Corner. I was feeling good, ready for a challenge. Even if Clyde didn't respond, at least I would get some practice feeling when the exact right moment of his stride would be to ask.

I didn't count on my trainer saying, "We'll probably just keep it to a walk and trot since you haven't ridden him for a while," immediately when I mounted up. I was disappointed, but I realized that Rome wasn't built in a day, and that maybe I could use my other lessons to work on cantering with Clyde.

Another thing I didn't count on was the wind.

And the fact that the wind would blow the jump filler flowers, making them look like they were up to no good.

Or that Clyde sees dead people in the bushes. Or something. I didn't see what it was that made him decide to suddenly turn tail along the straightaway, since I was concentrating on, "Forward. Straight. Straight, straight, straight," and looking forward rather than at Clyde. What I do know is that once we got about 15 feet away from the corner, I was hanging on his neck and wondering how I got there. There was no chance of me salvaging the situation since Clyde was still skittering away from the dead people in the bushes, so I just slid on down and landed on my butt, thanking my trainer for redoing her ring a couple months ago with wonderfully soft, even footing.

Clyde plots his next scheme.

 I hadn't even seen it coming, but that was it for me. After I mounted back up, my leg muscles were trembling from the shock of it, just like they do every time I fall, and I was frustrated that I couldn't make them stop. My trainer said to just hang out at the halt and take a few deep breaths. This just gave me more time to think about what a disappointment the lesson had turned out to be. No cantering, then I fell off at the trot, and now I couldn't stop my trembling body from telling Clyde, "Yes. Continue to freak out. Everything is scary today."

We picked up a walk, then a trot, on the other end of the ring, but of course that's where the suspicious jump filler was, so our circles were shaped more like kidney beans (sadly, not an exaggeration). Now it seems silly, but I was so disappointed in the difficulty I was having in just making a simple circle that I started tearing up when I asked my instructor what I was doing wrong. When the lesson was over, I seriously wondered whether I should even be riding horses like hers. What had I even learned? I felt that by asking me to retreat to the other side of the ring, my instructor was letting me back down from the problem instead of facing it. Maybe she thought that I wasn't capable of facing it. And maybe I wasn't.

In hindsight, she was crunched for time and probably just needed to wrap things up, but it was still a pretty confidence-crushing lesson for me. I mean, my entire blog is about me identifying as someone who rides whenever/whatever she can, and I fell off at the trot.

This past week, my instructor and I had more time to talk. I asked her whether she thought I should be riding school horses instead of her show horses, and she said that at a certain level, you just have to work through problems like the ones that Stan and Clyde tend to throw at me. And that's true. While I enjoy riding push-button ponies like Joey, I don't really have much to learn from a horse that does anything I ask.

For the rest of the lesson, we worked on my sitting trot and my canter departs, since that pre-canter running trot is where everything falls apart. It was never a problem with the drafts I've been riding through most of college since they are so comfy, but now I'm glad that I'm working on the things that will actually give me a good return on my investment.

Moral: Buck up and look forward to the next lesson, whenever that may be!

The Hunger Games & Financing Horses in College: Part 1

So clearly I didn't get around to writing my cover letter when I said I would, but c'est la vie. Spring Break has been pretty busy, mostly with fun stuff like making pie, riding and seeing The Hunger Games with my boyfriend. I love to read, but had never heard of the books before all the hype about the movie. Normally hearing about the movie adaptation of a young adult fiction novel would actually make me less likely to see it (OK, I'm a snob), but The Atlantic and public radio were all abuzz with how great and politically significant it was going to be. I'd give it a 6.5 or 7 out of 10. Entertaining throughout, but I saw a lot of scenes that could have been cut (mushy gazes) and some things that were rather mystifying for the uninitiated (what is up with the Girl Scout sign?!)

via Impassioned Cinema. Somehow I doubt that she's affirming her pledge to serve God and her country, to help people at all times and to live by the Girl Scout Law.

Also, The Atlantic misled me a bit--they made it sound like there were all of these connections to issues of today. And yes, class and economic inequality are problems today...but these issues are only very vaguely addressed as background for the movie's premise of having kids kill each other for entertainment of the bourgeoisie/oppression of the masses. Also the end basically left me thinking, "DUN DUN DUN....The Powers that Be are mightily displeased! The End."

Ok, so on to the main attraction: I asked how other people financed their horse addiction in college on COTH and MuckBucket a few weeks ago and I'm just now getting around to compiling all the responses. Midterms, car breaking down, Spring Break, blah blah blah...it's been busy.

One college grad learned how hard she was willing to work to keep riding after her parents unexpectedly sold her horse. She catch rode and then a great free-lease situation fell into her lap. Here's her story:

Well, my parents sold my horse without me knowing which was not part of the plan because I had gotten a ton of scholarship money, both from the school and other sources, so I wouldn't have to take out loans or even tap into my college fund which has now become my grad school fund.

I tried to go without horses for six months and was absolutely the most unhappy child as I was over the college party scene in six weeks, and although involved in practically everything from multiple choirs to my sorority, I hated being so tied down on a small campus. I was very close to transferring on more than one occasion because I seriously felt lost and without purpose.

After advertising "have saddle, will travel" and catch-riding some decent horses, but more often than not, terrible examples of equines including a pony club pony who gave pony club ponies a bad rap and a saddlebred who liked to "jump" ie crow hop everywhere at every possible moment, my mom legit got worried about my safety and consented to helping me get lessons at an actual h/j barn, albeit further than I had intended to travel at first.

Sophomore year new-favorite-trainer-ever had a horse fall in her lap who then landed in my lap as a perfect free-lease scenario, and provided I worked a number of part-time jobs and kept up my grades, my mom paid the other part for the next few years of school. Honestly I was a miserable wretch when I had to take six weeks off from riding once, and my moody-self was more apparent than I thought, since my adviser one day personally sought me out because another one of my professors thought I looked like I wanted my life to end during my riding hiatus and was concerned for my well-being (should add, considering this is a prof that I did not get along with well, I am amazed he paid me that attention). My close friends' first reaction whenever I was in a foul mood was, "um, have you been riding at all recently?" And the answer was almost always "no, why do you ask?" LOL. I showed a little when I had time, but honestly doing lessons and clinics was plenty fun.

The big two reasons why I was able to finance horses in college was a) my mom hands-down rocks and cares about my well-being b) a lot of luck. It was the right barn/trainer, the right (saintly, ammie-proof, low maintenance) horse, the right feasible business situation for both leaser/leasee. I am well-aware these kinds of situations don't always happen, so I view what happened to me as a blessing.

Christina keeps her horse at her parents' house, so she decided to stay there. I'm reminded of a recent, rather controversial Jim Wofford article (that I can't find the link for at the moment, will update later) in which he basically says that in order to reach the highest levels of competition, you have to choose to keep horses in your life, whether that means not having kids right away or choosing a career with horses, even if that doesn't conform to the traditional idea of how life should go. In this case, Christina decided that keeping her horse handy was more important than the traditional freshman dorm experience.

I am on full scholarship, so all I have to worry about with school is keeping up grades to keep the scholarship and pay for gas to and from school (hour drive each way). I live at home to save on living expenses, even though I would love to move out and have space to myself.

I keep my semi-retired horse at home and pay the majority of his farrier and veterinary expenses. My Grandpa and Mom are amazing and help me pay to keep my show horse at a H/J barn in my home town. I pay for all of his vet and farrier bills.

I work at as many odd-jobs as I can; babysitting, house cleaning, house sitting, and pet sitting. I also work as a substitute whenever positions are available at a local private school (do not have as many requirements for teachers as public schools have to) and am looking to get on a more regular schedule there.

I am hoping that I will be able to save enough money to show a few times this summer, but am constantly running the numbers to see how much I can truly afford to show. I have struggled with wanting to work more and keeping up with my school work as much as I would like to, but have decided to put schoolwork as my first priority at all times because truly, my education is more important than earning money so I can go to a horse show.

I am amazed how many people sell their horses when they are preparing to go to school. I think having my horses to ride and care for is what keeps me sane during finals week!

Like many other college riders, kateh from COTH relied on a combination of part-time jobs and her parents' support:

I paid for all of my own IHSA lesson and show fees. My parents paid tuition and living expenses during college. During the school year I worked in labs, which would only pay if you qualified for work-study, and I didn't. But my boss would pay me for the summer field season, which was in the middle of nowhere. So I'd earn money and usually not spend anything all summer. Senior year I managed to get a fellowship for my research, so I got a little extra money.

I also usually didn't lesson during the summer because there weren't any good trainers around and my schedule was ridiculous. I did manage to find a free lease for one of the summers though, so I at least got some horse time. Of course, all summer toodling around someone's backyard with no lessons did nothing for my equitation, and I paid for it in September. 

Kellie Stein of COTH gives the show mom perspective:
My DD, a college freshman rides on her IHSA team and occasionally adds a private lesson with her coach and then she rides whatever her home trainer has available on breaks from school. At this point, I still pay and she will supplement where she can but this will probably be her second to last year riding outside of IHSA, so I'm happy to help out where I can. After next summer, she'll have a full time internship (hopefully) and then onto work after that....

It's great that so many parents are supportive of their children's horse habits, but I know that mine never would have paid for board or moved to a house with land to keep a horse, even when I was in high school. They just aren't horse people. I was glad to see that it is possible to do it all on your own if you are really vigilant about your finances. ngarth from MuckBucket lives with her boyfriend to keep expenses down. Not everyone is in a situation to do that, but I imagine a similar situation could work out if you're ok with several roommates:

Another student here, with two horses. My boyfriend and I have owned them for 2.5 years. The first year we kept them at his family's place, and while it saved us money, it cost us in time and mentally. We would drive down every day, 30-45 minute drive depending on traffic to turn out and muck stalls.His family has never had horses before so they were new to the experience, and tried to skip out on things like, instead of feeding them grain twice a day, just give it to them all at once. So we moved them in the summer/right before school started the following year, to a place that did only outdoor board. The barn owner was actually looking for someone to do the chores, so we signed up for it, and made a little bit of money on top of working off board. It was a lot of work, we both had 5-6 classes on top of that, but we made it by. Moved them the following spring to a great place. Currently the mare (BF's horse) is on outdoor and my gelding is on indoor. We don't take lessons, and we only buy tack/supplies when truly needed.

Outside of that we watch what we spend. We have a monthly budget that includes rent (we live in an apartment together), board, groceries, car payments and insurance, etc. We cut out cable and just have internet now. I try to bake a lot which covers our snacks, dessert, horse treats and some meals. When we go grocery shopping we add up our costs as we go to see if we can buy a treat (extra fruit, veggies, cookies, ice cream, etc) but we manage to keep out grocery bill to under $35 a week for the both of us combined. My boyfriend and I are huge gardeners/farmers, so this year we plan on having a balcony garden to help out with our veggies. We plan on growing lettuce, peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, peas, beans, and other stuff.

On thing that we found was key was paying for a lot of our shopping with our visa cards. Some debit cards have a transaction limit, and once your over that limit you start getting charged per transaction. Well we solved this by putting everything on our visas and then paying them off 2-3 times a month. 

Hope you enjoyed all the different points of view--maybe it gave you some ideas. As always, feel free to share how you were able to ride in college in the comments...and stay tuned for a discussion of people's experiences of IHSA and NCAA, and what was/wasn't paid for.