October 10 Questions

This is what I am currently doing 24/7 ;)

1. How many pairs of breeches/jods do you own? Now, um... Well one pair that fit ( TR riding tights that rock in summer) lol. Otherwise 2 full seat, and I think 7 others of various colors and conditions. Nothing really nice yet, but did score some older TS off L.

2. How many horses have you ridden? Tons. Like I'm not being cocky, I just worked giving trail rides growing up as a kid and teen so I rode an endless sea of bay QH and various Arabs, TB, Morgan's, etc. A lot of them were rent string , your basic WTC in a line or do basic gymkana type stuff in our kids camp type horses.

I didn't learn nearly as much as I thought lol. I did learn how to switch from a hot little Arab to 16h massive QH while trying to teach random people to stay on a horse .

Circa 1999- Loved those 16hh endurance Arabs
 and super sexy high-waist Wranglers lol

3. How many trainers have you had? 1. My current trainer. Kind of explains my many riding shortcomings. I rode with people who thought they knew their stuff and some threw around the term trainer, but my current trainer blows them outa the water with knowledge and ability.

Circa 2010- First few casual lessons with current trainer

4. How many barns have you ridden at? 2. (If you don't count random rides on other's horses or playing renter). 1.)Las Trampas, where we did trail rides; and 2.) my current barn. I miss the trails at my good ol' LTS. We could see SF and the Golden Gate Bridge from our ridge.


5. What is the name of the horse you consider yourself to have the greatest bond with? I guess that would be Holly. My love for her is paled by my love for my son, its such a deep love that my love for my animals just feels so different now. It seriously caught me off guard the difference. I loved my horse Rad, but he was a man's horse, all work and no cuddling. I loved a few others I rode, Bay Cash (TWH) and Regal (Arab) but they weren't mine, and I fought hard not to love them too much.

My Princess

6. What is your favorite show name you've ever encountered? Can't think of any right now, argh, but I really wanna name a horse "Talk Dirty To Me". I would love to hear it announced by someone and singing that song when riding makes me giggle.

7. What do you consider your greatest weakness or flaw in riding? Lack of training. I rode a fair amount of my youth, but very very little instruction was given. "Don't hold onto the horn" was the thing drilled in the most (and kinda a dumb thing to follow when getting bucked around an arena).  And maybe now that in my 30's I'm less flexible, less agile, and less available.

8. What do you consider to be your greatest strength? I can take direction. When it comes to riding, whatever pride I had frankly left with my teens. I stay pretty dang humble these days, which means I learn a lot from my trainer and others without letting pride get in the way.

9. Have you ever leased a horse? Working at a LTS I got to ride lots of peoples horses, who were just too busy to ride. My favorite was Bay Cash, the sweetest 6 yr old TWH. If I hadn't gone off to college, I think I would have bought him from his owner, she was in her 70's and prob didn't ride him much longer. Her husband sold me my horse Rad.

 Then there was post-baby Louie and Magic. Louie was one of the nicest horses I've ridden... but a bit much for me in my floppy state as I was, so as much as I loved riding him, I went back to schoolies for a bit.

Louie- post baby bad eq

Then I leased Magic up until I bought Holly. He can be an ass, and lord knows he likes being spanked. He will pretty much 99% of the time jump anything, which is a huge confidence builder. Trainer threw some big jumps at me with him, and since I knew even at a bad angle, slow speed, and bad eq he'd heft us over, it wasn't too scary.

Magic :)

10. What is the name of the first horse you rode? First real ride was a trail ride on Gidget. She was the perfect little pinto pony. Steady fast and knew every trail, you just sat there and she made you feel like a pro (unless she was thirsty, then hold on she was going to the water trough, no ifs,ands,or buts).