Archie

Ox

Whiskey

Other Pets

Me.

When you go out to give an apple to the horse that you think might be The Next Horse, only to meet his surprise new owners on the way. #fml #nomorelosses #appaloosa #whiskeythehorse #ineedsomegoodnews

A post shared by bekaburke (@bekaburke) on Apr 27, 2017 at 7:39pm PDT

Grass.

I've never seen Archie play in his water. 😍

A post shared by bekaburke (@bekaburke) on Apr 24, 2017 at 11:31am PDT

April 13th on top, last night on bottom.

So, I've mentioned our beginner rider a couple times.  She is now our dressage rider.  She told Ox's owner and me that there would be a dressage clinic about 45 minutes away and arranged ride times for us.  I had very little information to go on about this and googled the snot out of the trainer, only to find that she specialized in Arabians, which my lovely draft cross is not.

I really wish I could have taken Archie.  ..who is also not an Arabian, but dammit.  The heart.

Saturday, we got to the facility - which was in a lady's back yard, literally - way too fucking early.  The first ride time was at 8:30 and we were there at 7:15.  My old fox hunter snorted at a lattice box and promptly started grazing.

To make a long story short, when it was my turn (9:15), we devoted forty-five minutes to Ox's left shoulder.  I was am a little bitter about this.  She told me what to do, I did it, it resolved the issue, I could feel the difference and knew when to apply it, and then we continued to do nothing else but drill it into the goddamn horse.



I understand that "straight" is pretty fundamental in dressage, but I had all these lofty aspirations of working on our shoulder-in, developing the shoulder-out, and polishing the haunches-in/out that I've recently taught him.  Like, the fun stuff.  I wanted to skip to the fun stuff.

I could also tell that the lady didn't appreciate my sense of humor.  Here's an example:

Her:  When do you ask for the canter?
Me:  When the outside hind is about to strike, but I can't feel that.
Her:  Okay, so when do you ask for the canter.
Me:  Whenever the fuck I want.  (cue friends laughing)
Her: ....well, that's one way to do it. 

 (apparently, the correct way when you can't feel the butt is when the inside front is about to strike)

I also asked a lot of questions and questioned a lot of what she said.  I feel like I'm paying a trainer for knowledge, so I'm going to make sure I understand everything.  I think this led her to believe that I was a little dull, because she started asking, "Does that make sense?" after almost everything she said.



This all inspired me to do a little more googling and I came up with this amazing website, Center Line Scores.  Anything that allows me to compare data just sets my little heart afire.

Saturday's Trainer.  Dated, but still a lot of accomplishments.

Koby Robson, from 2014.

Trainer who I rode with before I moved barns, a million years ago.

Big guy was not happy.

So shiny.

I was imbibing too much one night in November, trying to figure out wtf to get Hillary for Christmas.  The woman gets herself her favorite things and has impeccable taste.  So I started perusing Etsy (it's a normal pastime in the Burke household) and stumbled across the Paper Woodland.



Maybe it was the Thelwell-style pony carrying a banner or that the whimsical nature of her art complimented whatever it was I was drinking, but I was immediately smitten and ordered a portrait of Annie.

Thank you @bekaburke for the adorable drawing of Annie 😍 from @thepaperwoodland #equestrianblogger #equestrianblog #thoroughbred #equineart

A photo posted by Hillary M. (@equestrianathart) on Dec 13, 2016 at 6:32am PST

I gave my hubs a list of options for Christmas gifts and my own portrait was on that list, but didn't make the cut.  So when Big G's mom gave me a gift card to Etsy, I ordered watercolors of both Archie and Ox.  I absolutely loved the art and immediately purchased the digital copies.  I foresee some fucking memorabilia in my future.
I specifically requested that they be facing different directions and cantering.  I love how Archie is in suspension, as befitting his Thoroughbred nature, and Ox is power-housing into the canter.  Also, Archie just wishes his butt was that big.

She also included stickers (maybe she gives freebies of her beta-tests, too?), which I've hung up at work and can't bare to permanently part with.


Turn around time is reasonable for custom art (two-ish weeks) and she sends digital proofs before the hard-copies.  She is also on top of her packaging game and offers free gift wrapping (at least, she did at Christmas).



I was able to request that Archie get his little star added before the final was sent.  The only issue I would say is that price seems to fluctuate, maybe seasonally.  The portrait I ordered of Annie went up in price closer to Christmas.  I haven't been watching long enough, but I plan on ordering more portraits of other horses throughout the year.

Before, minus the star.

Ox has been in my life for just over six months now.  I figured this was a good point to talk about what impact the Big Orange Booty (and his retired-trainer mom) have had on my riding.  Not to mention my heart, because the ooey-gooey feelings start when I think about those two.

Third jump ever on Ox.

The lattice horrifies me.

At least I'm getting sorta consistent.

(video screen shot)

Okay, technically, it should be Fett Bogenschutze und Ochse, but Pfeil makes me think of Pferd and has a nice symmetry.

When last I wrote of the kiddos, I'd let my trail buddy hop on Archie for a few minutes.  I'd fallen off Archie a few weeks prior.  And I was having problems keeping my goddamn self up over fences on Ox.

I haven't eaten dirt lately (knock on wood), and things are actually looking pretty damn good.  All things relative.  I mean, Archie has been blowing abscesses out of his left hind coronet band periodically over the last couple of months.  In an effort to perform cheaper diagnostics, we're ruling out the shitty wet pasture he was in before we run tests.  He's perfectly sound.  I mean, as sound as he can be...

I took his sheet off one cold afternoon and he immediately started shivering.  So I bought a Weatherbeeta quarter sheet in blue for all of $20 from my BM.  Question from the deep South:  if you wear it over your legs, how do you keep it from pulling backwards?  Don't wear it over your legs?


And I cracked a jump up a few holes to reintroduce myself to a little bit of height.  It boggles my mind that I was jumping 2'6" regularly with Ox at the beginning of the summer and have now only started to think about that height again.  It's not fear of refusals.  The big bastard will jump the moon, or overjump the moon.  It's always been the landing side of the fence that scared me more.

Just a little raise.

This hot pink vertical was horrifying.

Trail buddy and I worked on basic h/j courses (line, diagonal, diagonal, line) until we both agreed that I had it down.  My ass is still eighteen inches too high above the saddle, but I'm not supermanning nearly as bad with my lower leg.  So we've started incorporating some bending lines and sharper turns.  I love that part of me remembers this.

And, following the direction from Liz' post, I made the Big Orange Booty a new rope halter.  I purchased some of the rope she recommended and followed the video she also recommended.  Really, really friendly project!

This took forever because I wanted to use my iPad to draw.