In which I prove how easy it is to get hurt doing stupid things

Jellybean has, by all accounts, been doing splendidly. So of course I decided to push the envelope a little bit more! I was riding around in the the large arena with the boys (maybe mistake one?) on Friday night. They were roping and dragging a five gallon bucket.

Seems boring right?

Jellybean was a little bit apprehensive about the bucket moving around and making noises, but she seemed interested, not terrified. So she walked behind the bucket while the boys drug it forward. She was following it in a funny, kind of like she was tracking a calf. She had her neck arched, ears forward and was looking at it like she might bite it. So I decided to build on that, and asked the kid to trot off, and we followed at a trot. Then he stopped. And we didn't stop as fast. And she saw it from the corner of her eye...

...And I hit the dirt. Hard. I think she started trying to turn around and run, but she baby bucked and spun. I tried to close my outside leg and managed to unbalance myself instead, and off I went. I landed hard on my left hip, shoulder, head. I hopped back up, but it was real hard to move. I walked slowly over to Jellybean (who was just standing looking at Gracie across a couple of fences) and collected her. I had to get back on, so I walked back to the mounting block. 

Jellybean didn't want to stand still (we have been working on this), so I had to finagle for a couple of minutes, but I finally got on. When I flexed my glutes to stand up in the saddle, I had some shooting pains, and decided I was only going to ride for a few minutes. I trotted her around through a couple of figure 8s, and then got off and untacked. Whew. Then I popped some ibuprofen and limped around. 

I have been getting much better everyday, but I am still waiting for the bruise to form on half of my back. I am going to take it easy until the end of the week, and then back to the grind. Don't worry, I'll be fine :) I like to think its awesome that my injuries have occurred mostly when I am doing something stupid, and no concussion this time ;)

Market Day!

Robert modeled some bull riding kids chaps.

Three Brothers Stable had a moderately successful trip to the market day on Saturday. We were very on time this year, and managed to have our booth set up and ready to go before 8am. We had enough people to man the booth, and lots more people available to shop with the students. One student managed to get an entire new tack set for under 500 dollars. All of our students managed to snag a new-to-them pair of tall boots, and there were lots of new saddles going around.

This is a scandalous boot jack I'm sad I didn't buy

Here's our haul!

At the final count, I managed to sell a hunt coat, a dressage coat, all the associated shirts, a western saddle, and two saddle covers. I managed to buy the items in the picture: a blanket for Jellybean, two sets of stirrup leathers, a leather girth, a dressage girth, a breast plate, a kimberwicke, boot pulls, and three pairs of breeches, including a gently used pair of pikeur's that retail for 340. Boom. Until next year :)

Its that time of year again

... for the Horseman's Market Day, aka the horsey flea market. We are super pumped about all the fun things we hope to find, and of course hoping to make a few dollars on some other things we don't need anymore. Last year was the first year I went, and I only sold one item and bought this huge pile! So I don't think I was in the green when I left last year. This year makes no promises to be in the black either, but nevertheless, very exciting :)

I think I paid less than 100 for all these things :)

Jellybean's first adventure off the farm

On Sunday my friends at the barn and I loaded up the ponies to go trail riding. I decided to take Jellybean and have a learning experience! We started off ok tying in the wash pit and grooming. It was super hot out (about 100), and Jellybean came in from her paddock sweaty. I brushed her off and picked her feet out really well. She seems to have a small touch of thrush?

Anyways, then we loaded Starfire and Panda up onto the trailer and then it was Jellybean's turn. She tried to make the step, but she wasn't picking her foot up high enough. We encouraged her with the whip, but she still wasn't making the step. We tried for about 15 minutes, and then tried something weird. Since the step was bothering her (she was even giving a slow motion rear to try to feel out the step), we picked her foot up and placed it in the trailer. Apparently that was all she needed to step up on her own. She went right up (Seriously, I couldn't make this up if I tried). I gave her a snack and tied her up and we went on our way.

Well mostly. We got pulled over on our way, apparently the driver tail light was out. This is amusing, since it has been out since at least June, albeit sporadically. Jeannette got a warning while we tried not to giggle too much at the circumstances; then we were on our way. We rolled up to Indian Spirit Springs and signed our liabilities and chatted about the trails. We opted for the mid-range trail, in case we had difficulties or dark.

We tacked up and hopped on, and off we went! Jellybean was pretty eager to go somewhere, although we didn't have a pace or plan. She walked in front through the open spots, and sucked back a little bit when we went into the trees. We had a nice rotation of leader, Panda/Starfire/Jellybean, none of the horses were too upset either way.

We walked past a large tractor (do you call them tractors when their bucket holds like 10 cubic yards?) and through some more grassy fields. Jellybean kept stealing snacks, but she was otherwise uninterested in much of anything.

These weeds were taller then we were!

Down the trail we go

After walking through some enormously tall weeds, we ended up walking through a wooded trail. Jellybean actually spooked just a little bit when a bush touched her butt unexpectedly. Oops. Then came the one obstacle on the trail: a "water" crossing! I was slightly concerned about this going out, since Jellybean has a history of disliking water, but I figured we would get through it somehow. Of course, maybe this wasn't a good plan, because Jellybean doesn't care so much about being with other horses.

The dread water crossing!

I guess it worked out then, that the water crossing had no water, just dried mud. Jellybean was not excited about going through it, but she did it while leading the pack (eventually)! Then when I was taking a picture she hopped back across. She didn't actually jump, but she was very careful to only cross on the left side of the photo.

Majestic and shit. The photo took with this fancy halo.

After this obstacle it was definitely smooth sailing and we made it with no further incident! Once we got back to the trailer we had some daylight left, and decided to trot around the field. Jellybean scared a herd of deer without scaring herself, although she did look at them. Anyway, she was being so good I decided to ask for a bit of cantering, and she cantered around in the big field with no misbehavior at all!

At the end, we untacked and snacked on some grass while the other ponies hopped on the trailer. Then Jellybean loaded up with minimal fuss herself! I think once she knew she could get into the trailer she was feeling more confident. On the way home I proceeded to annoy my friends by being so pleased with Jellybean! I think our first outing was a solid confidence building experience :)

So I made some saddle covers!

 Warning: The title is deceptively simple. I actually purchased a pattern from Suitability #7400 and then followed the directions the old fashioned way. But still ;)

So we have a couple of challenges at the farm, namely dust and mud, depending on the moisture level. None of these things facilitate clean tack. So I was browsing online looking for cute saddle covers, and coming up short. Limited selection, ugly colors. Of course, I didn't look on Etsy, so maybe my problems would have been solved there, but alas. 

Anyways, its fairly straightforward, cut two pieces and sew them together with some elastic on the edge (ok its more complicated, but since this isn't a tutorial I don't need to go into it).   

First I cut the fabric

Then I added the gusset triangle to each side

Then I stitched the two sides together and added a zigzag topstich

Then I added some nylon strapping to the top of the cover

I missed a picture, but I added the bias tape around the edge with the elastic, then topstiched then pulled the strings tight.

Voila!

My plan is to make a few more of these bad boys and sell them at the tack swap coming up in a couple of weeks! These are the other patterns I want to make:

  

Some updates to the layout...

I think its time to update the layout of the page. Its been over a year and a half since I started this little blog, and I have changed several things in my life since then. It seems like a blog makeover is a good place to start. The current sidebar:

I have been riding for many years and started by competing at local hunter shows before becoming more interested in eventing. After playing around in eventing, I moved to college and took up reining. I captained the western IHSA team and managed to learn some horsemanship patterns. With this variety of experiences, I am very interested in the pursuit of the "all around horse."

Dusty Summer (affectionately known as Jellybean) is a 3 year old mostly quarter horse mare. She is growing like a weed, and will hopefully be almost 16 hands. She's going to be my partner as we work towards a balanced training program which will allow us to compete in the lower levels of eventing, reining, and dressage.

When I am not working with Jellybean, I teach horseback riding lessons at Three Brothers Stable. I also work at a non-horsey job as a biochemistry PhD student at Texas A&M.

A new description of myself is necessary at this point, since my goals have changed and I no longer want to focus on my previous experiences as much as my current experiences.

Sooooo I have added pages to the top of the blog, check out a short blurb about the animals in our lives and some information about other places we frequent constantly.

First Cold Front? Summer is Over?

Today is the last day in July, and it kind of feels like the last day of summer. The weather people say we will be getting a cold front today at lunch, which is crazy. Texas isn't exactly known for having a short summer, and it hasn't actually been over 100 yet. Maybe we are going to have an early fall? Of course, most people who know me know fall is my favorite season, so I definitely won't be complaining.

Anyways, we have been crazy busy this summer. You might think summer is a time for relaxing for "full time students," but its not. We have been working hard to make progress on our research at work and also find time to ride the ponies. I have been working hard teaching my lessons and even helping with summer camp [now that's a flashback]. Somehow though, I have actually been riding Jellybean very successfully.

Jellybean is mostly at the point where she needs lots of miles. She walk/trots/canters with minimal cues (although I always carry the dressage whip in case she thinks she doesn't have to). She stops pretty easily and turns ok. She is learning to check things out before she spooks and she is being ridden all over the farm. I want to take her on an off site trail ride as soon as we get the trailers, etc organized. She is still growing, and is currently taller in the back then the front. I really really hope she levels out, but since I have never actually seen her parents, and I have no idea of their breeding its just luck of the draw. Some of her recent achievements: walking over a cross country log, bridling easier, and being ridden bareback around the farm.

Gracie has been showing the most improvement. I took a lesson with Maggie recently, and she helped me figure Gracie out just a bit. I previously attributed Gracies lack of willingness to canter to her lack of strength. She seemed to me like she was having trouble carrying a person in a less collected canter. So Robert tried a few times to get her moving and she became increasingly resistant to the canter. She started throwing small bucks and rears to evade the forward motion. I put a couple of training rides on her, and Robert backed off asking her to canter for a few weeks. Then we went on vacation.

So when Maggie was helping me with Gracie, she was on the ground telling me to push push push her forward. I didn't bring my stuck-to-the-horse seat that day, and I was having some trouble. So she volunteered to ride her around a bit. And then Gracie was cantering around. We decided that this should be treated more like a sour lesson horse situation then a weakness.

And wow what a change. Riding Gracie carrying a dressage whip is like riding her in another world. She listens and goes forward and canters off without a fit. Go figure. So Robert has been riding her in his lessons and really enjoying his time cantering around. They even jumped some cross country logs the other day!

So now Robert is working on his seat again, and Gracie is being well behaved for the most part! Sounds like a win all around to me :) Anyway, the end of summer is fast approaching and we will be back to teaching and working and trying to fit some riding in. I hope to have more to talk about soon :)