Christmas in July

Christmas came early this year - not only in my event colors, but in the pasture as well.

Bailey, a TBxHolsteiner mare bred by the lovely Edee Lee of Wake Robin Farm came home almost two weeks ago. She is greener-than-green and full of try and potential - I'm excited to bring her along! When Bailey came home, she had been ridden 6 times, and vaguely turned, stopped and had an inkling of what you wanted when  you ask for a walk, trot, or canter. Since she has come to me, we have made some big strides - she lunges almost in a circle, is much more confident cantering and is beginning to understand giving to the bit and moving parts of her body independently.

Whereas Foxie is a  tough ride who is hard to talk in to doing work, Bailey is easy easy easy, but comes with her own challenges. Because she is so athletic and learning so fast, we have to be sure she has positive, productive experiences every time she is handled. While she is young and silly and a total spitfire, I'm excited for her future.

A Foxy Foxie Update

Don't ask my why this is a foxy update about the bestest, most wonderful Fox, but it is!

Foxie is a superstar, even as she settles in (pretty happily I might add) in to semi-retirement. We still ride, and we still manage her suspensory injury with MSM and Previcox. Under saddle we work on maintaining suppleness through her back and her neck, which tends to be a problem area. I'm big on maintaining her topline, and what dressage training she has. I fight between wanting to drill and go for perfection (even if I'm pretty sure she can't do what I'm asking perfectly anymore) and wanting to make her rideable. Lately rideable has won - I want her to have a purpose, even if it's babysitting family and friends like the solid citizen she is.

I value her greatly now that I'm also riding a four-year-old whose turning and brakes are not always a sure thing - she is still a powerhouse under saddle, and is and always will be a fun ride. She loves challenges and games with a vengeance and the "transition game" where I throw different transitions at her in a crazy sequence makes her brain happy, and helps keep her body in shape. She jumps, occasionally, and gets a few days off after she does to try and counteract the soreness I know it causes her. She loves it and gets so excited to be back doing her job again that I cannot deny her.


Finally, Foxie has also become a trick pony, learning to stop and back on the bridge, and pushing gates open and closed when I unlatch them from the saddle (enjoy our silly video).

Much Love,
Ashley and Fox

Long Time, No Post

Well, Blogisphere, things got busy. In the span between my last post, I completed my final semester at St. Olaf College, graduated, found a job and, most excitingly, brought home a second horse (you'll meet her in the next post, promise!).

Time slips away, and I've lost a lot of the time I used to maintain and write both on this blog and on my horse care blog, Keep Calm Horsecare. I feel like, a lot of the time, I'm living two separate lives - one at work, and one in the saddle. While I'm not working my dream job I'm able to make ends meet and most importantly, keep doing what I love.

I'm working hard to maintain balance in my life, so today I'm updating a blog from work. Naughty me :)

My workplace believes in a work/life balance - part of the reason I was willing to take a job that wasn't a perfect fit for what I wanted to do with my life. While evening comes too quickly, I'm slowly learning to balance keeping two horses in work and happy. It' a game of wins and losses - it is, at times, incredibly frustrating but the moment I swing my leg over the saddle, I know I'm making the right choice.

So I'll make this soliloquy a short one and get on to more exciting things.

Watch this space!
Ashley 

February Goals: The Foxie Edition

While I'm sitting around, twiddling my fingers waiting for the funds to pile up sufficiently to buy a future pony, I have a perfectly usable one eating me out of house and home.

The Foxmonster.

AKA "Currently sound for flatwork" Foxie.

In the last month, I've been an intern, and thus riding Fridays, and usually Saturday nights. Not a whole lot of consistent work, but such is life. Since it has been so gross and icy and snowy, Fox has a lot of energy. Thus we've been doing a lot of cantering around and general asshattery (pardon the term). 

February Goals:

- Do more bareback dressage : Fox and I had a couple of good days lately with doing shoulder in/haunches in bareback after she softened up and stopped being a brat about her back. Plus, it's a great work out.

- Work on going bridleless : I intend to start riding with my neck strap so I can start doing simultaneous cues (pull back when I pull back on the bit, etc) so we can start going bridleless. We also will work on our vocal cues (especially "woah") as I intend her to be a mom horse. 

- Work on ground work and lunge cues : Since we can't play in the round pen, as it's definitely too icy/snowy/etc and probably won't get to until mud season is over, we might as well make do with what we have and play on the ground to keep the ponybrain from self destructing and maybe even getting a "woah" that doesn't involve reeling her highness in like a bass. Fox has spent the beginning of our last few rides on the lunge line and really enjoys galloping around (while swinging her head around like she thinks she's a total badass) and burning off some energy. 

- Work on evenness under saddle/bitted : Her highness is amazingly uneven, and needs to be more flexible, especially to the left. We'll do carrot stretches every session and work on lateral work to that direction. 

I think that should do us for the month - I'm hoping to be on a T/Th/Sat schedule, so work should get done! 

New Beginnings

Welcome to the newest Foxrider blog. My name is Ashley, and I'm currently 22, a senior at St. Olaf College and a habitual blogger. This is a new one for me - I will be in the market for a new, young eventing prospect come spring of 2013, and want to chronicle every minute of trying horses, bringing home baby, and of course, the ups and downs of owning not one, but two horses.

It's definitely going to be an adventure.

My current horse, Foxie, is retired from her lower level eventing career due to Digital Suspensory Ligament Dermatitis, and while she will always be my heart-of-hearts and my Miracle Pony, she deserves a retirement fit for the queen she is. I'm hoping she will become my mother's trail horse, when she's not being the coolest "lame" horse in the history of ever.

Stats:
Stable Name: Foxie
Show Name: Tara Shani
Breed: Thoroughbred
Parentage: Ledge of Night x Galaxyana, bred by Kissoon Racing Farms in MN
Color: Bay, no white markings
Height: 15.3 on a tall day
DOB: 4-17-1996 (currently 17)
History: Foxie raced from 2-3, and spent her 3-4 year banned from the track as she bled during a race. She raced, more unsuccessfully, for another year before being retired. She was bought, bred, and gave birth to a small bay TB mare named Chloe (Game Over) who is currently a Hunter. Foxie was then abandoned, met an abusive leasee and then found her way to me at the age of 9. I leased her for a year, and purchased her in the Spring of 2007, when I was a sophmore in high school. Foxie injured her Deep Digital Flexor tendon in the summer of 2008 and after a struggle, became sound enough to begin an eventing career. Foxie went to her first show back after her injury in the fall of 2010 and ran her first eventing season in 2011. In training for the rest of the 2012 season after her first Combined Trial, Foxie injured her left suspensory, an injury that triggered the DSLD. After a long summer of pain, treatments and hard decisions, Foxie miraculously recovered this fall (thus, the name "Miracle Pony") and is currently sound for flat work.

So... yeah.

Watch this space for pony updates.