Jump-Jump Pony Turns Ten (!!)

Holy shit, y'all. This grey fella is ten years old!!!

Just the prettiest boy.

He's been a part of my life for 8½ of his years. It absolutely blows my mind.

Talk about a blast from the past. Who remembers this little tyke?!

For his 10th birthday, I motivated myself to get up and FINALLY repaint my jump standards. They have been in dire need of a fresh coat to help outlast our intense weather up here, and I've been putting it off with no real reason since March. But when the jump-jump pony turns 10, you've gotta do something special for him, right? And what could make the jump-jump pony happier than having his jumps setup again?

Nothing. Nothing makes him happier than jumping.

While we've had the cavaletti and XC jumps up for a few months, my shoulder injury set us back so far as any kind of regular jumping goes. As we both get back into the swing of things, I knew jumping colorful sticks that fall down would be much preferred to large solid objects. 

Sunday morning, I got up and got at it pretty early. And my early start paid off. I had three coats of paint on those jumps and had them setup in the field before noon!

It was a hot (for here) day, but not humid at all (for the first time in weeks), so I pulled Grif out for a short little birthday jumpy jump session. I think he was a little surprised at first to see the jumps out there! But he took to them quickly enough. It was as if we'd just jumped them yesterday. And not like...gosh, I'm not sure. I don't think I've had the standards setup at Starlight Lane yet. 

Happy birthday, Grif. You're the best grey pony a girl could ever dream of having.

Finally, Some Jumping!

I've gotten in a handful of jump schools since bringing the horses home. But sadly, between the field being full of wood that needed to be split and inclement weather that led to poor footing conditions (I really don't want to tear up my field!), jumping has been something I've done very minimally since moving the horses home.

However, the latter half of my staycation consisted of several consecutive days of no precip, light winds, and sunshine. A perfect combination to setup idea footing for jumping! And so, on the final evening of my staycation, I dusted off my jumping skillset and took Grif out for his favorite kind of fun.

We flatted for a good 20 minutes, added in some ground pole work, then cavaletti exercises, and finally popped over the 4 XC jumps I currently have setup in the field. (One is out of view of the camera.)

While rusty, there was SO much about this ride to feel good about. Grif has matured so much and I have a lot more trust in him these days than I once did so far as will-he-or-won't-he-jump. He was forward and our rhythm was smooth and comfortable. Honestly, prior to pulling out the camera, things felt the best I think they've EVER felt. But then of course, despite knowing the video would never have to be shared or saved, once I started filming things didn't feel quite as perfect.

Don't get me wrong, for not jumping with any kind of consistency for the better part of a year, there is SO much to be happy about. But all the same, I wish just once my nerves about being "watched" could be completely absent (though I must admit, those nerves are infinitely chiller than they once were - go me!) so I could have a visual of what that "perfect" feeling actually looked like. I'm just so curious!

The best takeaway from this jump school is that Grif and I both still have it. We may be rusty in areas, but the foundation we built over the past several years is still very much there. Our trust in one another has grown, too, and with that I'm really excited to see what we may accomplish later this year.

If I have my druthers, I'd really like to get out to two or three MDHT schooling trials at Loch Moy this year. That will certainly depend on time/finances though. However, making it to these events will depend greatly on finances and scheduling conflicts (of which I have many lol).

What I absolutely DO plan to do this spring, however, is to construct several more XC jumps on my property that aren't in the horses' pasture. I've got three or four designs in mind right now, and I have all the materials I need to construct them. It's really just a matter of finding the time to do the grunt work once the weather breaks. I reckon focusing on one jump every couple weeks will be more than doable though.

The project as a whole should be much simpler than building a barn was last year, haha! And the thrill of having my own little private XC course will be beyond awesome. As much as I wish for more snow to ski (we did have 4-6" dumped on us last night), this project certainly has me eager for spring weather more than ever. Ah well, I'll have to be patient.

Eight Years

Yesterday was my eight year anniversary with Griffin.

January 28, 2012

April 28, 2012

It's so hard to believe he went from such a little dork to such a pretty fellow (albeit, with the worst clip job ever right now! sigh).

January 28

Weird haircut aside (ohmygoodnesswillitevergrow?!), this guy is my soul. I love him dearly.

We enjoyed a 3-mile, 30-minute ride last night in an absolute winter wonderland.

The trees are absolutely caked with rime ice! It's both beautiful and destructive, as several large branches are breaking and falling from the excess weight. Grif and I stuck to mostly open areas along the edge of fields last night. I grinned like a fool the whole time. It was so beautiful and ethereal to ride in that winter wonderland!

Happy eight years, buddy. Here's to many more!

Working Toward 600 Annual Miles (or more?!)

One of my big "number goals" for this year is to attempt to ride at least 600 miles.

I've tracked my annual mileage with increasing frequency since 2012 with the Endomondo app and my Garmin watch, from which data can be transferred to Endomondo. From 2014 through 2016, I managed 500+ annual miles. Then, in 2017, I moved to Canaan and the horses remained in Elkins. As a result, my 2017 and 2018 annual mileage was around 370 miles.

The Endomondo output for my first ride of 2020 with this little queen. The most exciting part of this ride? We cantered for a long stretch that previously would have resulted in constant spooking from Q. While she was uncertain about a few boulders this time, she kept her forward motion and kept me in the saddle!

As everyone knows by now, I moved the horses home last year. Prior to the move, I had to be more judicious with my available time and was almost exclusively riding Q in an effort to get her fit and ready for a 50-mile race. Riding Griffin and Stan - especially Stan - went on the back burner. This didn't have a huge effect on the boys' fitness levels because, prior to the move, they had 28 acres of 24/7 turnout and were part of a very active herd that moved all over the property during a 24-hour period. However, moving the horses home changed the turnout situation significantly. They went from 24/7 turnout on a large tract of varied terrain to a 40' by 60' dry lot with occasional (weather-dependent) turnout on two one acre pastures, which they didn't have access to until late September.

Riding more became a priority due to the limited turnout situation. Fortunately, my barn commute went from 50 minutes one-way to about 50 seconds one-way allowing more available time for riding. From August through November, I rode a minimum of 8 days each month (so, roughly, twice a week). It wasn't a lot, but considering that I was working 40 hours/week, still finishing the barn & fences, doing daily barn chores, and cutting and splitting 3-4 years-worth of firewood most weekends (oi vey), that frequency was pretty good! By the time December rolled around, the barn and fences were complete and the firewood was cut and split. As a result, my riding frequency in December increased to 14 days with several twice-a-day rides.

Most of my rides are around 4-miles long as it is easy to do a 4-mile circuit (that could be repeated for more distance) from the barn. I will also be gaining access to a 5-7 mile route with tons of elevation gain quite soon. (I can't tell you how grateful I am to be able to head out and do that without trailering!) I'll be utilizing these trails often to help preserve my pasture, which is where my jumps and dressage letters are. To offset the lack of an arena, I incorporate dressage movements on trail quite often. I also practice oodles of natural jumps, ditches, water, and banks when I'm on trail, which Griffin absolutely loves. It's all about making the most of what you've got, yes?

The rides I put in during the latter half of 2019 really helped to set a base of fitness on the horses. Thanks to those rides, I've begun pursuing longer conditioning rides off-property (when the road conditions allow me to trailer off the mountain) this month. Q has been out for two longer conditioning rides so far and Grif has been on one. Each ride was only a 15-20 minute trailer ride and each was in a different local location.

I'm already having so. much. fun. planning and implementing these rides. And I honestly cannot remember the last time I felt so excited to plan/schedule rides. It is such a thrill to have so many options so close to me!

Post-ride Griffin looking alert and happy following a 3-mile canter to end the 13.4 mile ride.

My current hope is that I can trailer off-property for at least two conditioning rides of 12+ miles per month. Two longer rides per month coupled with shorter rides twice a week is a schedule that has worked rather beautifully to keep Q in competition-shape in the past. Grif does well on that schedule as well, but he does even better if I can fit in one more ride per week.

And Stan? Well, as I've stated ad nauseam, he owes me nothing at this point in his life. If I wanted him in shape for some sort of distance competition, he'd need a 6-day-a-week schedule. But fortunately for Staniel, my only goal for him is to keep him fit enough to keep his joints happy so he may continue to enjoy his senior years with ease.

Qdle (cue-dl - a new nickname I find myself using quite often) couldn't be bothered to open her eyes for any photos after the ride. Seriously, I have 4 photos and her eyes are shut in every one. 

Hopefully, 600 miles in 2020 will be quite achievable! And hopefully I'll end up with some fit, happy horses as a result of all those miles. No matter what, the first full year of having the horses home is bound to include many more miles than I've enjoyed in the past couple years, and I will enjoy every single one!

Snow Ponies

Apologies for any formatting errors - I have received countless errors from Google in my attempts to post this all week...

There is no purpose to this post beyond sharing several photos of the horses having fun in the snow earlier last week. Looks like we may see another dusting of snow sometime this weekend - fingers crossed that we get more than that! I miss the winters of my childhood.

He's simply the handsomest

Wishing he had a play buddy to romp with

Rushing to her stall because she was "missing" dinnertime. Why was she missing it? Because she was too beside herself being upset that she was missing out to realize that oh, hey, the stupid human OPENED THE GATE FOR HER TO WALK INTO THE DRY LOT AND HAVE STALL ACCESS. Sigh. She stood for a solid 5 minutes on the other side of the fence throwing a tantrum and was too into her tantrum to notice the open gate.

Stanley galloping to his dinnertime.

Gotta get those hind legs UP to get them out of the snow drift area!

A majestic Staniel excited for his dinner.

The sweetest face

Engage: zoomies.

The boys. And, uh, well, also the photo debut of Griffins Very Horrible Clip Job. I got some new-to-me clippers and should have gotten accustomed to them on Stan or Q before trying Grif... So now I have two horses and one part-zebra. Thank god hair grows back!!! It's already looking MUCH better this week. 

And she's off...

But not without a sassy head toss

I'd turned them out about 30 minutes before taking this photo. The cold, misty air wasted no time in adding frosty tips to each horse!

Snow-encrusted barn and house. One day, the barn will be the same grey-ish tone as the house when the white oak exterior weathers more.

Grif telling Q how it is... And with good reason. She's a witch to him most days in the dry lot!

In sync

Q's tell tale "I hate this cold wind in my face" posture

Stan herding everyone down past the barn

Angry Staniel ears and irritated Q ears in response. Griffin is just a lemming following along.

Oh hai, boys!

And they're off again, this time with Q bossing Griffin...

LOOK at that angry mare!

Fortunately, Grif is becoming adept at escaping her attempts...

It's a horrible clip job, but he's a majestic fellow. Also, note Taiga in the window lol!

Snow Ponies of Starlight Lane album cover

Q's frosty mane

His clip job may suck, but his tail is pretty clean these days now that he doesn't have iron-rich mud to wallow in!

This old man <3

Heading down to the barn... Those trees tho!

The barn nestled in for the winter