The crap we did on the second day

Braided. Just cuz.

Aimee is good at setting up jumps. And courses. And that is exactly what she did. The course was fun, adn could be taken in many different ways. All of the jumps were set pretty low, so we could make me work on myself and move my horse around efficiently to each jump.

And it's on!

Giraffe wants to jump.

Come on mom, raise the jumps.

The only other experience I have had jumping a course was at the Rafter K clinic, so I was excited to give it another try. Bacon was game for every jump and every line, and I had to do my best to get her to the jumps in a controlled manner without running her down on her forehand towards everything.

Position doesn't look too bad here.

Bending line! I think?

Weee blue barrels!

Many water breaks were had. But it was a great ride for the both of us.

Sometimes you have to use the neck as a half chap holder.

I was about dying here.

I don't know why I have t-rex arms.

We also found out that my horse has a large issue with the sounds of rubber bands by her neck. Not amused.

We Did All Kinds Of Cool Crap.

Just call me B-Sizzle. Yo.

I had the butt end of last week off of work. It was really really nice, because I got some wedding stuff done (AHHHH IT'S GETTING SO CLOSE) and I got to ride with my friends everyday and Bacon got to go on another adventure!

Mom. Knock it off.

We like adventures.

On Friday, B-Sizzle got hauled over to join Big Papa and P-Diddy. It was bay OTTBs unite! There were two small grids set up in the arena, which was a perfect exercise to try and help me with my position while Bacon stepped her way through them and coordinated those long ass legs.

And trotting. 

We had to work through those trot poles a bit to establish the right pace, and get me to use my leg to squeeze her through to the next jump. Initially, the one grid was set up with trot poles to a small cross rail into a bounce over a small vertical with a placing pole after.

And cantering. Boooooring!

The other small grid!

We were figuring that jump out (I shouldn't even call it a jump. Bacon doesn't even begin to jump with this height, which makes for less than stellar looking pictures, but you just wait!) and I was doing my best to get my stupid body to look half way decent over a jump. It's just dumb. I don't know what to do with it. Good ol' Aimee loves pictures. Seriously, who doesn't? But she doesn't settle for mediocre. She began to hoist things up and turn things into oxers.

We have lift off!

And guess what? My horse can jump! And my ass needs to learn how to ride her jump. Because when giraffes jump, it is magical. We ended with a few of those awesome bad boys and parked it to watch our other gang toodle around. We just have way too much fun. Tell me why I must work again?

I look like all kinds of special, but my horse looks awesome.

Oh yeah. So I can try to afford more horse things. Or things like horse trials. Because there is one that I got offered to be driven too. Enterprise Oregon, August 15th-17th. And I really really don't know if I should go or be a good kid and stay at home. So, I tried to break it down.

Reasons to go:
Bacon is awesome.
I have a ride there.
I can get even more experience.
CROSS COUNTRY.
Looks like fun. Pretty pictures.
I can do the trials or the derby. But trials.

Reasons to not go:
Right before wedding.
Injury would be bad if received.
Moneys.
Nobody to babysit me because I like to try and die.
Nobody to take pictures.
Bacon lost some weight after the Rafter K adventure.

Quit losing weight mare!

So come on cool kids. Help me out. Point me in the right direction. Just tell me what to do!!!!

And the winner is....

Genny from A Gift Horse!

Wahoo! Bacon hopes you enjoy the bonnet!

Woo hoo! Congratulations! O is going to look fabulous! And thank you to everyone who participated in my first contest. If this was your first time visiting my blog, I hope you enjoyed it. And I demand you to purchase a custom made bonnet for yourself from FUN bonnets!

They are the best!

Oh, and by the way, we did this today. Ignore my position. I promise you I am working on it.

Need to measure that bad boy.

Genny, contact me with the chord colors of your choice for your new black bonnet!

Contest Reminder!

Patriotic? Or just awesome.

Just a friendly bump bump and maybe a shove to encourage everyone to enter the FUN bonnet contest! Again, all you have to do is leave a comment on my original blog post (or this post) after going through their facebook page and saying what you loved!

Awesome team rockin' a square bonnet.

Bonus entry for sharing the contest on your blog! Contest ends tomorrow night!

And the awesome applique I'm having done on my next bonnet.

Winner gets a custom bonnet with a black base and two cord colors of their choosing. So, get to entering folks!

Rafter K Day Three: The Derby!

Finally, I shall enlighten you on my derby day experience. My friends know that I get a little bit weird and anxious on show days. This day was no different. Inhaler was at the ready, water was at the ready, Aimee was prepped with running shoes and my camera to make the trek across the waiting area to get as many photos of cross country jumps as she could. But first, there was dressage.

I was on a roll that morning and immediately went to tacking up my horse after barely letting her finish up her beet pulp. I was all sorts of flustered for no real reason at all. I brushed her up, threw on her saddle pad and bridle and went wandering off to locate my saddle. Bacon was really sensing my nervousness, and that didn't help the thoroughbred mare calm down at all. Once the saddle was on, I climbed on and went trecking across the open field trying to get her to settle.

Yeah, that didn't really work. She was super tense, as was I. Aimee found us, a sloppy mess, and alerted me to the fact that I still had about an hour until my ride time. Whoops. She calmed me down and found a lunge line for me. I hooked the mare up and just let her rip around. She didn't play or bolt or do anything stupid. She just stretched those legs and went for it. And some stupid ho on her arab kept coming into my lunging circle. The warm up field is about a trillion acres, get your ass out of my circle! I should have just let Bacon run into her. Dang nice people politics.

I hopped back on and rode a little longer. She felt better, and instead of frying her all over again, I got off and hid in the shade until it was about time to go. We had the same judge as our first derby, and she felt the same way about us as the last time. We had "no bend". I can agree with that. Bacon and I were a little all over the place, she was a little tense and I believe one of our canter circles was about half as big as it should have been. Whoops again. I was just happy that she had picked up the correct leads. She wasn't listening too much to my seat either, but I was bracing against her too. But all in all, I was pretty happy with it. Even if we were in last place with our 47.

Bacon had about 30 minutes before she had to be dressed for cross country. I drank a lot. Took another huff of my gaseous steroids and got ready. I had a different horse under me when she realized that we were now jumping. She stood ever so still gazing out into the fields of jumps, and was completely content. Apparently she just hates dressage. We were second to go, and out of the start box we went. The first jump was a regular standard jump. She kind of looked at it, I had my leg on, over she went, and that was the end of that.

There was no stopping the magical beast/ It was point, leg on, and hold on. I tried to set her up as perfectly as I could to each jump, especially the elephant trap. But she had come alive and was ready for anything. I had to haul on her face on the up and down bank. She hadn't gone down that particular bank, and it was steeper than the others. But she was a honey badger. She didn't give a damn. Same thing with the cabin. I waited for a giant leap, but all was good. Fifteen jumps later, I was still alive and my horse was completely happy. She cruised around on the buckle, stood to let me catch my breath, and happily hung out with another horse while his owner and I chatted about the course.

It was freaking awesome.

I love this pony. And she loves cross country. She ate and drank and took a nap and didn't even weave for a few hours. I was so happy. We did end up moving one position up, so there was that too. Yay pony!

FUN Bonnets: A Review....and a Contest!

We are going to take a quick break from our regularly scheduled blog to tell you about the most awesome bonnet I have felt thus far.

The FUN (For Ur' Nag) bonnet.

Success looks like this.

Based out in Canada, this wonderful woman makes custom bonnets at wonderful prices. The double, or thicker of her two bonnets, is what I ordered. Prices start at $25 for one of these styles, and includes two cord colors of your choice!

She also has rhinestones available, and some appliques, can also do crocheted edges, and shipping is always $7.

Isn't it beautiful?

I wanted a bonnet custom made to match my Ogilvy. Grey base, white chord and purple binding. I measured Bacon out to a horse size, and we settled. I was told it would be about six weeks until I would have it because she is so busy busting out bonnets all of the time. And that was perfectly fine. The maker was so easy to work with, very professional, and quick to respond to any messages or questions I had.

When she was finished, I got some photos. It was PERFECT!

Ogilvy and bonnet obsession. It's bad.

And then I had it in my hands. And it was even better. If this is what the double strand bonnet feels like, I wonder how nice the thinner ones are. Everything is put together so nicely. The stitching is nice and taught, the pattern is beautiful, the yarn is not cheap feeling by any means, and the ears blend in nicely. Even the chord is soft and supple. The ear fabric is nice and stretchy and breathable and conforms to Bacon's ear well.

So soft and beautiful!

I busted the bad boy out for our second ever event derby, and I am pretty sure we were the envy of many riders. I showed a few people, and they loved it as well. It was so nice and lightweight, and Bacon made no fuss whatsoever about it. She had no sweat marks either, which was a first for the whole weekend. I can only say positive things in this review. And now I can't wait to have another one!

Batman bonnet? I think yes!

And that leaves you lucky folks a chance to win a black "double" bonnet with two chord colors of your choice in a horse or cob size! Awesome right?!

You could have a sexy looking bonneted horse too!

Please take some time to browse through their Facebook page here, and take a look at the website too! One comment on what colors you would love a bonnet in, or a favorite on their facebook equals one entry! Share this contest on your page and tell me about it for another entry!

Contest ends next Friday at 8PM Mountain Time. Remember, she is pretty booked because of her mad skills, so it may take eight weeks or more for your finished bonnet. But believe me, it is worth it!

This is all you get from derby day as far as pics. Today.

Good Luck!

Rafter K Cross Country Clinic: Day Two

Day two came upon us with the sun a' blazing and the heat cooking SB's epic sunburned legs. Today's new goal was to have no asthma attacks and come into everything with my leg on and and no roachbacks.

Bacon was geared up in her purple people eater garb and I thought she looked damn sexy. I matched her, and there was a legendary moment on pride. Except for that damn black and green protective vest. But whateve's, someday my attire will be complete. I took a long time warming Bacon up, and we were the first out in the big field to get things started. She warmed up nicely, was still a little tense, but I could walk her around on a loose rein.

A member of our musketeerness came out to join us in the warm up, and went through the water. I tried to get Baconator to follow, but she put on the brakes. You want me to do WHAT mom? But why would you want to drown such a nice bay spider legged giraffe?

It took a little coaxing, and then she just calmly walked in. First time in water? Check! She decided that it was great, especially when you trot fancy through it.

Soon it was time to begin the clinic. I think the clinician was on to me. First, I got harassed for wearing so much purple and bling. I turned the table and pointed out that she herself, was wearing a purple shirt with purple hair ties. I got no sass back. She began to give a quick speech on cross country things, and then realized that I had probably never heard any of that before. She was right. So the long speech began. And it was good. I remember her talking about galloping position and chiming in to say that I could at least do that. And then we went straight to the banks.

And Bacon was like, what banks? Oh, you mean this little step right here? This is supposed to be an issue? And then the giraffe went up and down the bank. No questions asked.

Everybody went into the water. And then over to the small ditch. And again, Bacon didn't realize that was supposed to be a thing. We turned around, and went over the bigger ditch. Same results. Damn awesome horse.

Next it was time to throw a little course together. Do the small uphill jump, jump some show jumps, go up and down the little bank, go through water and over the ditch, and over a small cabin. BAM. Done.

And then we had a different course. Again, Bacon was all over it. Banks were no biggie. Jumped down the small downhill jump. But that was all after we jumped the cabin coming the other way and I was launched out of my tack because my giraffe turned into a deer, and then back into a giraffe. I landed very much on her neck, she kind of cantered around confused, then slowed and lifted me back into my saddle.

HOORAY FOR GIRAFFE NECK AND NON CRAZY BRAIN!

So yes, start course with deer leap, and finish the rest of the course with no other issues. I'll take it. We then moved into another field with a larger ditch, a box, and a gate. Bacon did everything, big surprise. The next field had an a-frame with hay bales underneath, an elephant trap, and a nice log that we went over. I messed up and took my leg off and and just sat and grabbed mane up to the narrow elephant trap, to where my horse reacted by going around it. Because, why not? I didn't seem committed, so why should she be?

If all I have to do is tell my horse "Yes, we are doing this" and she happily obliges, then I have nothing to complain about. We turned back around and hopped right over. Everything else was cake. I think the clinician decided that Bacon was pretty much magnificent, even in all the purple, and maybe I was good at trying my hardest.

Would that set us up for success for the derby? Maybe I will tell you. Next time.