blog hop

Blog Hop: Seven Deadly Sins

March 7, 2014September 25, 2017 Amanda6 Comments

I’m jumping on the bandwagon – this was a lot of fun!

Pride
Seven great things/strengths in your riding life

1. My awesome, level-headed, sweetheart of a horse
2. The outstanding care and facilities of my current barn
3. Access to great training, great hacking, and great competition venues within 2 hours
4. Though they cause me much angst, my truck and trailer and the freedom they represent
5. An ability to plan and budget so that Tris will never be without
6. A very supportive family: my parents adore my horse and have been helpful and generous, and my boyfriend has on occasion ordered me to the barn when I’m in a bad mood
7. A semi-flexible job that I love that means I get to live in great horse country

Envy
Seven things you lack or covet for you or your horse

1. A stable blanket, for next winter, to go under his medium weight turnout
2. Actual adult tall boots, not PVC cheap-os (they do the job, but no one will ever call them fancy)
3. New helmet. I’m just about to hit the age limit and might finally upgrade to something non-mushroomy
4. Am I allowed to be thankful and complain about the same things? These are sins, after all: a 4WD truck and a new gooseneck trailer
5. Longer turnout; he’s doing ok on the abbreviated schedule, but my ideal would be 24/7 and we are far from that
6. The financial ability to get him training rides from time to time
7. My own farm

Wrath
Seven things that make you angry

1. People who don’t wear helmets
2. Extremists on both side of the mustang issue
3. Poorly run horse rescues
4. People who don’t give due consideration to their equine partners, whether it’s something as simple as taking an extra few minutes to make sure a warmup is sufficient or something as major as abuse and neglect
5. Seeing pictures of people riding in t-shirts when it’s -20 outside (I’m sorry, I can’t help it, worst winter EVER)
6. People who refuse to understand how important Tristan is to me, or are nasty about him, or horses in general (this is most assuredly a non-zero number)
7. My own laziness

Sloth
Seven things you neglect to do or cut corners on

1. Tack cleaning. I do a deep clean maybe once every 6 weeks but am terrible at anything in between.
2. Picking out his stall after I ride
3. Bridle path + fetlock clipping
4. Ride every day, or even every other day
5. Little things like hacking up and down the hill before every ride
6. Picking out his feet after riding in the ring…oops
7. Keeping regular track of his default pulse/respiration/temperature

Greed
Seven most expensive things you own for your horse/riding

(the most expensive thing I’ve ever done for my horse was pay for his surgery, but that’s not really a “thing,” so…)

1. Truck (Chevy 2500 extended cab, extended bed)
2. Trailer (1985 2 horse Kingston with dressing room space)
3. Albion dressage saddle
4. Passier jump saddle
5. Stubben bridle
6. My XC vest
7. Circuit Figure 8 bridle

(Tristan’s adoption fee was less than all of those things, believe it or not, hooray for rescues!)

Gluttony
Seven guilty pleasures or favorite items

1. Horse show food
2. A second tack trunk for the trailer, with its own grooming kit
3. My Albion dressage saddle
4. My truck, oh my God, I love my truck
5. Can the place I live appear here again? I am struck dumb with every sunset, every sunny day, every perfect clear view of the mountains.
6. Sore No More liniment
7. Tristan, of course!

Lust
Seven things you love about horses and riding

1. The smell and soft fuzziness of Tristan’s nose when I bury my face in it
2. The feel of a horse leaping forward into a gallop
3. How quiet my brain is when I am riding: nothing else but the here and now
4. The way it grounds and centers my mental health
5. The person I have become because I interact with horses: the way I have to be confident in my own skin and firm and decisive to excel as a horse person and as a rider
6. The gear, I’ll be honest: always something new to try and fiddle with and lust after and sigh over
7. Horsey friends, who laugh with me and cry with me and gallop alongside me and are some of the best people in my whole world

Blog Hop: A Dressage Barn in Vermont

January 13, 2014September 25, 2017 Amanda10 Comments

(please note, if you think you saw this yesterday – you are not losing your mind, I apologize! I accidentally published the draft before I was finished adding photos)

SprinklerBandit is hosting a blog hop encouraging everyone to show photos of their barn. I’ve had a couple of photos up here before, but this is a good comprehensive overview. For the record, the barn in question is a dressage barn in semi-rural Vermont. (As in, outside of the capital city, so clearly not the middle of nowhere; but all of Vermont is classified as rural according to broader standards.)

1) A View of the Barn

There are actually two barns on the property. Here’s the main all-season barn, attached to the indoor (which is on the left, and shares the roofline). It has 20 stalls. Not a lot of frills but quality through and through. Everything is lived-in and there are tons of little tweaks that make life easier.

Here’s the summer barn, in winter. It sits just behind the main barn and has an additional 10 stalls. It houses the trainer’s horses in summer, but she’s in Florida November-May. It is quite a bit fancier than the winter barn, and is newer.

One of my favorite pictures, looking back out the door – basically up to where the first two photos were taken. When the visibility is good, you can see a perfect frame of Camel’s Hump through this door. I have watched many sunsets leaning against the wall and just staring.

2) Your Horse’s Living Space

Drunk pony after a vet visit.

Home soon after his surgery.

3) In the Tack Room

Downstairs, looking left. It is actually a bit messy right now, barn manager would probably kill me if she knew there were photos on the internet…

Downstairs, looking right. You can’t quite see it, but the wire racks in the back are the best saddle pad & wrap storage system I have ever seen. Hose in the foreground = a necessity in winter. It freezes in less than an hour if left in the aisle.

Upstairs, where my tack is kept! You can’t see my tack; my trunk is just behind the saddle covered with the towel.

4) Where You Ride

There is basically no way to get good photos of an indoor, especially if you’re almost always there after dark. Regardless: small court dressage size indoor, our primary home right now. Lovely springy mixed rubber & washed sand footing that is dragged every 2-3 days and, believe it or not, doesn’t kick up ANY dust clouds.

Outdoor #1, jumping / schooling arena. Not quite sure of the size, but it’s not huge – a bit wider than a full dressage arena. We are often here in the summer for schooling.

Outdoor #2, fancy-pants dressage arena, all-weather mixed rubber footing. This was taken sitting in the permanent judge’s booth. I have actually never ridden here! This summer, maybe. There are so many other good options and this arena is about 50 ft from the barn owner’s back door, so it often feels invasive to ride there when I’m riding at night.

And, of course, the fields! This is the big hayfield – no idea on acreage, somewhere around 10, maybe? Believe it or not, the dressage arena above is at the very top of this hill.

Oh, and the roads. So may dirt roads. I could go for miles and miles and miles. Did you know that 70% of Vermont’s roads are dirt? Now you do!

5) My Favorite Feature

I have been in some beautiful places, but this one has them beat all hollow. It never comes out well in photos, but the fire of that sunset is touching the tips of the Monroe Skyline; in the winter you can see the ski trails of Mad River Glen and Sugarbush. You can see weather coming before it gets to the barn, in the clouds on the mountains and through the valley. The property itself is sprawling and lush and achingly pretty even on gross days. It’s in one of my favorite spots in my favorite place in the whole world (I will argue to the death that Vermont is, objectively, the best state). I feel lucky every single day that I can live and ride here.

(this is not to say that the barn has many, many other wonderful features! but this is the one that gives me an almost physical pang of happiness in my heart when I think about it.)

blog hop

Blog Hop: Bucket List

November 7, 2013September 25, 2017 Amanda2 Comments

Little Bay Princess is hosting a blog hop that many have already taken part in, and I figured it’s my turn!

She asked: I want to hear about your equestrian bucket list! I think we all have things, whether they be on paper or in our head, that we would love to do someday. Pick three that are horse related, and tell me a little about them.

Here’s the original post.

My bucket list…sigh. I’ve had many, many bucket list items over the years. Most of them have been dashed by injury, finances, you name it. Here are three current ones:

Schooling at Scarlet Hill, Summer 2012

1) Compete at one schooling or recognized event in the 2014 season.

We were gearing up for a great 2012 season, and then the great coffin bone incident wiped out the end of that, as well as our entire 2013 season. Now, we’re less than an hour from some of Area 1’s great events at Huntington Farm, Hitching Post Farm, Tamarack Hill, and of course the Green Mountain Horse Association, not to mention the wealth of small schooling shows. This bucket list goal has one big huge flaw in it, unfortunately: I still don’t know if Tris will ever jump again. We’ll find out this winter. So far, he hasn’t shown me any reason to have serious doubts, but I’m forever cautious.

Coach with the hounds on her mare Gracie

2) Go foxhunting.

The reality is that this will probably be second field, but I really, really want to get out. For the purposes of this goal, cubbing, riding out with the hounds, and all variations on foxhunting count. I don’t necessarily have to do a full formal hunt. This goal is somewhat simplified by the fact that my old trainer in Vermont (referred to on this blog as Coach, since she was also my college equestrian team coach) is now the huntsman for the Green Mountain Hounds, and Tristan’s massage therapist rides with them regularly.

3) Own my own horse property.

This is my forever goal. It’s been my north star for as long as I can remember. I want to be able to retire Tristan to my own back yard, to take in the occasional rescue horse, to have a pony for my kids if that’s in the cards, and to be able to see them every day, no matter what. I know it’s a lot of work, and I know it’s a money pit, but it’s where my heart has been for many, many years now.

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