• One AC - half dose SID (once a day).  I won't risk him not sweating again, so he will stay on this stuff for the rest of his life.
• SmartFlex Senior - one dose SID.  Archie has been on this for years.  Long before he could be considered a senior.  I put him on it, rather than the other SmartFlex options, because it offered pre- and pro-biotic options, enzymes, and antioxidants.  Also, it has a shit ton of the stuff that I wanted for the Kid's crappy joints:  7k mg of Glucosamine, 500 mg of Chondroitin Sulfate, 50 mg HA, and 12k mg MSM.  

•  Cocosoya Oil - 2 ounces SID.  I wanted to add a little fat to his diet because he dropped a lot of weight when he moved to the new barn and he stopped eating his other supplements when they were no longer made moist by beer.  Also, fat is a better option than straight calories because they don't tend to get hot from it.  But I'll be completely honest:  I only went with this instead of rice bran oil because it was cheaper.  As the name suggests, it's soybean and coconut oil.  At 98% fat, it contains Omegas 3, 6 and 9 and additional fatty acids.  $20/gallon at Tractor Supply.  A gallon lasts us about two months.

I actually took a photo of this because I wanted to remember the sale dates.

• Seminole Senior - umm.. a scoop BID (2x day).  I wanted him off sweet feed.  And Seminole is the brand the barn feeds.  I have no complaints and the feed seems to have a lot of good stuff added to it.
• SandClear - 1 scoop SID for the first seven days of the month.  He wouldn't eat the generic stuff and rejected Metamucil.  Yay, money!
• Coastal hay - free choice from a round bale.  Not perfect, but good enough.
• Beet pulp/Alfalfa cubes - 1 cup beet pulp (when dry), handful of cubes.  Archie gets this, soaked, after every ride.  Because his mother is crazy.

• All of the above, though the OneAC is doubled to be at the full dosage and the round bales are pulled.
• SmartLytes - one scoop SID.  Super duper important to me that he get his electrolytes replenished in the summer when he's sweating (thankfully) his ass off.  And I want him drinking, which the salt should encourage.

• Beer - 1 can BID.  Whatever is the cheapest.  We did Steel Reserve one season and the Beast the next.  This is also one of my neuroses as a result of his anhidrotic episode, but it's not something I'll fuck around with.  And... he absolutely loves his beer.
• Pasture grass - the grass grows pretty well at the barn and they've got a good pasture rotation system.  I do plan on talking to the BM eventually about maybe supplementing Archie's feed with alfalfa pellets, though, to fill any gaps that may be caused by the quality of grass.

So freaking random.  I guess I could talk about circles and how Archie and I seem to have a difference of opinion on the right about of contact for bending, as well as the right amount of bend?  Blargh.

I got an email from Horseware (wut?) inviting me to vote for the inaugural Horseware Grassroots Rider Competition.  I'm not sure why they invited me to vote when I don't remember getting an invitation to compete.  But let's take a moment to think about what my bio would say...

(They all have pretty action shots.  I thought this was more realistic.)

Rebekah Burke and her nearly-17 year old Thoroughbred, Bold Archer (Archie), compete in combined tests at the Amoeba level.  Well, they competed in one combined test.  There's also history of a couple cross rail classes back in 2008, but Rebekah reports that they failed miserably.  Rebekah has been riding since she was nine, she says: "I was antisocial and overweight and too intelligent for my own good.  The one thing that I sort of didn't suck at, other than reading books and being sarcastic, was keeping the horse mostly between myself and the ground.  Mostly."

Rebekah and Archie haven't qualified for anything, ever.  Her primary goal for 2014 is to keep Archie sane and healthy, with a sprinkling of small fences hither and thither.  And circles.  Because former racehorses love to circle tracking right.  She thinks it would be swell to get a few more over-priced pieces of satin, but putting the pony first has always been the priority.  Also, cojones and solid equitation are hard to come by.

We appreciate Rebekah's... um... honesty. 

I think that's about right.

I did take a moment to actually look over the seven competitors, four of which are from Great Britain, one from Ireland, one from Norway and the final competitor from the good ol' USA.  In saying that I took a moment, I really just went through to see the breeds of horses.  Because I am an elitist fuck and I love the American Thoroughbred more than any other breed.  There were a few TB crosses, warmbloods, an Appaloosa in Great Britain (we import theirs, they import ours!), and one full-fledged Thoroughbred.

They don't tell you in the bio that this 15 (17?) year old TB doing Intermediate level eventing is off the track, but he totally is.  The rider's name is Kira Young and her horse's name is Rhodes Point.  I stalked him.  His name will take you to his pedigree, which will show you that he's run 34 times and made just over $25k.

If you're interested in voting and didn't get the weird someone-sold-my-email email, click here.  Not to sway you, but... OTTB!  OTTB!  OTTB!  Also, he's a bay.

First:  weather sucks.  OR and I had plans to have a great pony reunion yesterday, but we got rained out.  While St. Patty's isn't a banker's holiday, my office is on the route of the parade.  Savannah seems to be the drunken epicenter for St. Patty's Day in the southeast.  Had I been able to find parking, I would have had to wade through green-beer toting leprechauns at eight in the morning.  You think I'm kidding.  So, I was given an admin day off.

Like this.  For four days.  For reals.

Second:  I have been spoiled.  It has been so great having OR and the Eventer to ride with, to jump with, to design courses (and assemble...), that I'm having a hard time doing this shit by myself.  Part of me wants to jump every single day, but only baby crossrails at the trot.  The other part of me knows that I need to grow some and work on courses and height and doing things in a reasonable fashion, rather than farting around in the fetal position while my pony launches himself over things. Sooo.  We've been practicing height.  And cantering, but mostly just getting over my fear of that magical second foot.

Whatever day it was (Saturday?), I worked a little bit with three fences in the ring.  L. Williams has been contracted to help me figure out some courses because I am not creative and our ring is tiny.  Anyways, it was this:

Master artist.  You're welcome.

The green was set as a big crossrail and, initially, the blue and red were 18" verticals.  Then I moved them all up to a bigger crossrail and bigger verticals.  Since the standards have wonky holes, 2' comes after 18".  I did a few mini courses of the red to the green around to the blue or the blue to the green up to the red.  As much creativity as I could muster.  And then I moved the blue up to 2'6", because why the fuck not?