Stealing Tracy's 5 Day Challenge Questions: Day 1

Tracy over at Fly on Over has come up with some awesome questions to answer. And when you have no new content or the brain compacity to come up with something all your own, stuff like this is great and appreciated!

Me and Coco! Old lady Arabian back in Arizona.

1. Most influential person on your riding

This is a toss up. My mother instilled (possibly genetically) her love of horses into me. Perhaps this was by osmosis. Who knows. All I know is some of my earliest memories were horsey adventures with my mom. She was a groom at a track in Arizona and took me with her on the weekends to go play with racehorses. She use to take me on bareback rides down the sandy roads in the desert on my aunt's palomino gelding.

Trusy Dominic. 

One clear memory I have may be one of the most important things she ever taught me. Always wear a bra when riding. She told me that I would understand someday. I understand. So well.

The other influential person on my riding was my friend and "instructor" Deanna. She was only a year older than me but she taught me so many things. My dad found their boarding barn and brought me out there for a little visit. She threw me up onto her horse, I rode around the barn and beamed with confidence after she told my dad I was a natural. I then slipped behind the saddle and we rode doubles around the pasture and through the creek beds. I was thrilled when my dad told me that I would be having my 11th birthday party there.

Riding in Idaho. On Sassy. With horrible permed hair.

After that, I got to take lessons once a month with her. She taught me all of the basics of horse care and how to be a free spirit on a horse. We raced around and traveled all around the desert foothills. We played games and she told me that I was a better english rider than a western rider. It pissed me off, but I went with it.

2. Piece of tack you would love to splurge on

Right now that would be a dressage saddle that actually fit me. The knee rolls on my current one cause me a lot of knee pain (which I already have and don't need more of). It wouldn't even have to be an expensive saddle, just one that helped me as a rider and was comfortable. And comfy and fit the pony too!

Convince the husband that the tax refund should go towards a new saddle? Or bills. Those too.

3. Top 5 riding playlist (Oh geez)

• Seven Nation Army - The White Stripes (The Glitch Mob version is good too!)
• Pumped Up Kicks- Foster the People
• Everloving- Moby
• SIC-Slipknot
• When the Levee Breaks- Led Zeppelin

4. Most important aspect of your barn

Well, considering all of my ponies get to live with me, the most important aspect is making sure we provide the best care we can with the funds that we have. Husband knows that and allows this to happen. Last year I even got to get a new trailer! Even though we still haven't been able to use it, I am very thankful that he planned with me to buy it. I think our horses are well cared for, especially with what we have. I day dream about having acres for them to be out on, and I am sad that I can't provide that ample turnout or nice arenas or fancy stalls. But they eat well, have a regular farrier schedule, get bundled up when I am cold and cared for. 

Goal: To have their pasture look like that again this year!

5. Three winter riding goals

Ha! Well, hard to have riding goals when you don't get to ride. The general goal here is to hope that my horses (Bacon in particular) have a nice winter break. Hopefully we will be able to come back to work this spring looking awesome and ready for the year. So far, this week has been killing me. I don't know what is wrong, but there is more pain than usual and yesterday was full of body tremors and dizziness. And I have had enough of that.

This was last Feb. Hopefully we will be doing this again soon!

A Week of Things!

This week had a mailbox full of things. It was pretty exciting! Especially because I only bought two of the things. It started off with getting my awesome secret santa present from Olivia!

Squeee!

I got a nice package from The Hunt Club and was very confused as to what I ordered from them. Turns out, I didn't! I opened the package and right away, I read the letter that came with the gifts. Everything was so nicely wrapped and cute.

Look at all of my stuff and things!

I first opened the chapsticks (both smell heavenly) and I have a dire need of chapstick all the time, so that was very welcomed. Next I opened my beautiful purple crystal earrings and matching bridle charm. And lastly, the most delicious looking horse treats I have ever seen. Seriously. My friend almost ate one while I was in the bathroom because he thought they were donuts. I squealed with joy at everything. Thanks Olivia!

Yummy horse treats!

Next, I recieved a package from my grandma and in it were these cute little earrings. She gets a thumbs up.

They look like old time classic thoroughbreds

And then I opened my Fun Bonnet. I had been wanting one so badly for a while, a nice basic dressage one, and promptly forgot I had ordered one until the 12 week wait time was up. She is so popular now, so I highly recommend ordering now and not waiting until you want one in your hands right this second. Of course, it is lovely and I can't wait to try it on my horse.

It matches my new earrings and bridle charm!

She even included a charm. How awesome is that?

My first shipment of Performance Equine Nutrition MagRestore also came. Bacon has always done better on a magnesium supplement and I had ran out of the Magnesium 5000 that I order from SmartPak last week. I was wondering while my regularly nervous horse was EXTRA on edge. She likes having a routine and when it is disturbed, she gets a little on edge. Well, she lost her mind one day and weaved so hard that she stuck a leg in the water trough. Much to her surprise, she didn't like that and yanked the sucker out hard. She had a nice gash. The following day, she was still quite off and then I realized what it was. Magnesium.

Ooooo. Please be magic horse cocaine. 

Based on a recommendation from a friend who also owns slightly crazy OTTBs, I thought I would look into this particular supplement. The website has you take a 43 question quiz to determine which supplements you horse might benefit most from and you get free shipping for your first order (if you take the quiz). It suggested both MagRestore and Focus Equine for Bacon, but at $19.99 for a 7 day trail size of the Focus Equine, I had to pass. If I feel like she needs it later on, I may try it. They mostly recommend use of that product for shows ore stressful situations, so that helps spread out the use. At $55 for 135 servings for MagRestore I hesitated, but after breaking down the costs, MagRestore ended up $3 cheaper a month (with the free shipping and after the initial loading dose). I also threw on a 60 serving bag of Glucosamine for funsies. So be on the lookout for a review of those products after a couple of months!

Lastly, my Back on Track pad came from my contest win! I hugged it and I am half tempted to try it out first and wear it around the house. I can't wait to see if Bacon likes it or not. Her black pad will go great with her black and purple dressage bonnet!

Lyme buddy likes it.

More Crazy Ideas

Uh oh.

I don't know if it is being cooped up or watching cool motocross videos or what, but I have another probably not so smart idea brewing in my head. I think I will blame it on neuro-Lyme. Yeah. It's those little spirochete bastards all up in my brain messing with my logic. That's it.

Let's bring it back to the videos. When filming Lindsey's video for the Boyd Martin clinic, I had a lot of fun. I kind of want to video all the things. I want to make a Bacon video. And a musketeers video. And a horse/moto video.

Wait. A what?

Hellz yeah. A horse/motocross video.

Now, you are probably thinking the hell this chick smoking? I'm telling you, it is the lyme. I swear. What exactly does a horse/motocross (I really need to come up with a word for this combo) video entail?

Off roading

Well, I always thought it would be cool to do trot/gallop sets out where husband rides his bike. Load the pony up in the trailer, load the bike in the trailer, and just ride. It would also be fun to have a video with both me and the hubs in it. I told him this crazy idea, and he went with it. Then I thought about it some more. I could gallop alongside him. He could go through whoops and I could go through bounces. I could side pass behind him while he wheelies. He could jump and I could jump his motorcycle (my favorite part of this whole idea). He hesitated a little bit with that one, but agreed that that wold be cool.

I waited for hubs to totally shoot the idea down, but instead, like usual, he encouraged me. Sure, his wife is crazy, but he thought she we crazy before the Lyme disease struck. He was washing his bike on Saturday and we both took a good hard look at it and went over the best place to jump it. It sits at about 3'6" on the stand, and is only about a foot wide. The tricky part will be aiming for the back half and to stay away from the handle bars. Which gives me about 2.5' of back end and not a lot of room for mistakes. He looked at me and said "You better practice your skinnies. Better get that blue barrel and be able to jump it vertically." Yes, sir.

Plague doctors can jump 3'6".

He is also already thinking about where to mount the camera and having a counter balance tripod and stuff like that. He thinks we should rent a fancier professional 4k camera, but now I think we may have gone overboard. There are other things to determine. Things like which places he rides at will have good footing for the both of us and how Bacon will react to galloping next to a motorcycle. If she has difficulty with jumping the butt end of the bike, we talked about putting two bikes together to make it a lot wider for her. And jumping things like loading ramps and tires. He really wishes he could jump over me while I jump something, but that would require a very large double for him to jump.

Jump the things

And if Bacon says HELL NO, then obviously, we won't be doing any of this. But she lives next to where he washes and starts his bike and has never been worried about it one bit. She has watched him ride around in a pasture. We will have a lot to work on before jumping his bike. But we can practice over the little bikes too. And we will have to do quite a few training sessions and practice runs, but I believe she can do it and will do it for me.  Because she is crazy as well.

Can we be crazy together? Yes, we can.

So, this idea may not be the brightest or safest. But I've been rolling it around in my head and it just seems like it needs to happen. Perhaps it is very Idaho. We already have the song picked out though, so you can share your thoughts on that. Or on this whole thing. If you have even more to add to it, let me know! Or camera recommendations. It is a shame I can't get any sponsors (I'm looking at you, Aztec Diamond, because I would rock the shit out of those black snakeskin breeches in this video). I know this in no way will help fun my horse shows this season, but if I can't go to any of those at least I can say I did complete something wicked awesome.

Looking for our minds

Something to be Excited About

Woo woo!

I know that some of you saw this already, but I am still pretty pumped about it and it should be documented on the blog. Bacon and I were lucky enough to be randomly chosen for the 4th Annual Back on Track Essay Contest put on by Horse Nation. Bacon and I get to take home a saddle pad (we chose a black dressage pad!) and it is just a nice little piece of happiness for me right now.

She is excited about her new pad.

You can read the essay here, but basically it details how Bacers has been therapeutic in my life. I have wanted a Back on Track item for forever (especially a mesh sheet) but funds are going to every other thing. I danced right out off of the couch when I got the email from Horse Nation. What a joy.

You can't tell me those aren't the longest legs you've ever seen.

Speaking of therapeutic, the hubs demanded I give the chiropractor a whirl. He took radiographs of us before Christmas and shared his findings with us last week. I have an additional curve in my neck (bad) and the view from behind shows that my back is bent like a backwards C (also bad). He asked me if they bothered me and I had to tell him that sometimes I can tell, but other things cause more pain that kind of cancel the back and neck pain out. Though some days I find it hard to hold my head up but I have just now been realizing that. Hubs already has bone spurs in his neck, most likely from all of the motorcycle crashes, so he will be receiving treatment too. I am skeptical, but if he can provide some relief (and allow me to ride better!) it should be worth the cost and time.

Dancing

The ponies were excited too because I finally let them out of their pens. The ground was super muddy and slippery, and then it froze and it just wasn't safe to let them out. And I know it has been over a month. I was surprised at how calm Bacon was when I first let her out. She was the first one and just sniffed around. Vegas could barely control her excitement as she waited for her turn. They all had manners when I took them out, and then they had a little fun. It is still a little slippery and I was surprised that they didn't haul ass and fall all over. It made me happy to see them happy.

Unicorn is FREEEE

Not a buck I want to ride

WILD

WHAT'S THAT?!?!

What Lucy looks like without a neck

Hover Goose

Majestic Goose

Jumping the stick and dreaming of XC

Hover Pandy

Strolling for a good roll spot

Found it

She found it too

Making a mess, she is really good at that.

Hello little Panders

Paint girls

Wild fuzzy unicorn

Derp face in the background

Bacon wishes Lucy would play with her. Or that anyone would play with her.

If only Vegas was in there.

The goats are also extra fluffy and cute right now. And the dogs are still smelly and slimey. I can't believe that Moo will be turning 10 years old next month. Such an old lady dane, but still looking pretty good. I hope I get to keep her for a while longer.

Ewwww

He is like a slinky

No, I'm not walking to go crap in your arena. Don't know what you are talking about.

Daaawww

GOAL Time!

Galloping full speed ahead into 2016

2016 is here. Will it be a good year? Will Bacon and I kick ass? Will we get more awesome photos jumping and dressaging? I hope the answers to those questions are yes. But, we shall see! I am not as motivated or excited to write down our goals for this year and I am not quite sure why. I think it may be our slight money troubles and my horse's feet that are making me doubt the year, but I really don't want to start it that way. So let's pick out some fun things to shoot for.

1. Compete at a USEA sanctioned event
       I would so love for this to happen this year. It didn't happen last year and it put a dent into my excited little heart. If this were to happen, it would become un-dented, I just know it. I feel like Bacon and I could show up and compete and finish and have a blast.

Please please please please please

2. Become a better dressage rider
       I need to be a better rider if we are going to get better scores and for Bacon to understand what I want from her. I confuse myself up there, and if I can't figure it out, how can she? This means trying to get some lessons and I know my great friends will try to help me out to get this done. If we want to get to our musical freestyle, we need to do this. And read and watch dressage, even if it kills me a little bit.

No more t-rex arms! Effective leg aids! Sit back! Penis!

3. Get Bacon's feet in good order
       Too bad there isn't a magical potion I can pour onto her frogs to make them come back from contracting RIGHT NOW and grow and be the cushiony supportive insoles she needs them to be. I need to find the right tools to help her correct her feet and make her comfortable at the same time. Currently she is wearing frog support pads with Magic Cushion to fill the gap between her foot and the pad, and our farrier thinks we are the right direction. Her heels are already looking better as well.

No hoof no horse. I'm keeping this one damnit.

4. Be less of a passenger while jumping and more of a constructive rider
      This may be a bit detailed, but it needs to be done. If we want to jump bigger jumps and handle tougher questions, I need to again better myself as a rider. I know Bacon will take me there and jump it, but it would be nice if I could help us both out.

I know she will still have to save me, but hopefully less.

5. Play around with more reining stuff on Pandora and Vegas
      If I am feeling well enough, ride these two western girls and strengthen their skills. They both have the basics but could use a lot more refinement and work. Ride Lucy in a dressage saddle if husband allows, and also get his ass out there on some horses too!

Ready to spin and slide.

6.  Jump and answer some training level questions
        I hope this happens because I bet it would be a crap ton of fun.

And look good doing it.

7. Try to fight through the sickness
       Feeling sick and weak holds me back a lot. This is always a constant battle but I need to remind myself that I can push through and get a lot of things done if I don't dwell. Sometimes I push too hard and make myself worse, so I need to find that line between pushing too hard.

Whiners are weeners. Winners get ribbons.

8. Go hiking!
       We did three hikes last year, with Goat Lake being the biggest and best. Hubs is very excited to keep doing this as long as I can and we have a couple different trips planned out. Including overnight stays so I get to rest before heading back down. Most of my Christmas presents from him were hiking and camping related (though he knows better and still bought me a couple of horsey things) and he got a backpacking tent and other supplies from other people. My brother and my dad want to join us as well and I will really enjoy the family trips.

I am still exhausted thinking about that hike, but it is hard to beat that view and not feel somewhat accomplished.

A new year always brings so much excitement with it. Will it beat last year? Possibly. I know for sure that more memories will be made and that I will get to share them with all of you.