My trailer tack room does not have a saddle rack built into it. In place of it I have had a folding saddle rack in it with three saddles piled on top of each other. The top one or two usually slide off when I drive, or on occasion all three. They tend to get bunched awkwardly or a flap is folded up and goes unnoticed. There is always a girth or non slip pad falling and going missing in the mess and requiring me to strip out the whole pile and everything around it to find said missing item. And of course I always need the saddle at the bottom of the stack. Murphy’s Law.
I’ve had this trailer for quite a few years and I practically live out of it on the weekends from April till November each year, and quite a bit through the off season too. That stupid folding stand takes up a chunk of space and always seemed to be in the way.
Why I never had the brilliant idea to put actual saddle racks into it until this winter is beyond me. But once the genius (and oh so obvious) idea struck, it was game on.
It took a while to enlist the husband and his handyman skills but today seemed to be the day he was ready to dive in.
I cleaned out the tack room so he would have room to work (I should have taken a before photo!). Mean while he stained a board and then attached the three racks to it.
Next he drilled holes into my trailer (ahhh!) and the board. I was pleasantly surprised he took which end of the bolts would be on the horse side into account. Then I was on one side and he was on the other and together we tightened the bolts and the rack into place.
And Done! I put the saddles up and the the other necessities back in. It’s shocking how much more space this created and that’s going to come in very handy when I pack it out for the season in two weeks!
It’s Friday night, what do you do? Trailer your pony to an indoor for some dry lighted ride time. That’s what you do!
I took Possum to the welcoming Sunset Willow Stables. This was my first time here and I am so happy to have found it. Anne, the person in charge, is super kind and friendly and made me feel right at home.
I was in the indoor and riding in no time. It was larger than I expected and just what I needed.
I did trot sets with mounting block work in between and added in a few sprints for good measure. We worked on boring stuff like moving off the leg and nice round circles. We also worked on hard “whoas” and tight turns.
I am so glad I made this connection. I wish it were a bit closer so I could get there frequently. But I’ll see what I can manage and enjoy that!
I started by clipping him. He didn’t seem to know what clippers are all about and was shaking when I turned them on. But after a few clips on his chest he relaxed and pretty soon I had the front half of him done. I started with his chest and then moved that into my usual modified Irish hunt clip. He was still hanging tough when I got him clipped that far so I went ahead and did the rest of his body, leaving his legs and face.
Not my best clip job but he should be much more comfortable when we ride and a lot easier to keep clean in all this mud.
He was so good I was able to fly through the task and I ended up having a little daylight left so I moved onto his mane. He was pretty sensitive about this but I shortened it up and evened it out some. He has a very short spot in the middle, about half way up his neck, and I wasn’t going that short with the rest of it.
I finished off my brushing out his tail and banging the end to help keep it out of the mud. Ta-dah, a whole new pony. And just in time for our holiday trip.
There’s nothing like an easy carefree hack around the farm to lower the blood pressure, and ease the mind.
I usually pop in my Bluetooth and pick out a podcast, or several, and roll along smelling the air and watching nature.
I enjoy the gentle roll of my pony’s gate and companionship of my dog, trolling along behind us.
Lately I’ve been lucky enough to have the fabulous Neville, the chillest blonde pony around, to be one of my equine companions to take out on these therapy sessions.
He has a nice smooth walk and trot and his canter is like butter. He is happy to stop and stand when I ask so we can leisurely admire the world around us and watch a chipmunk or squirrel do their thing.
And never to be forgotten is my heart horse, Simon. Anytime I start to think I might like another horse as much as him, I hop on this jokester and any question melts away instantly. His back is home.
I usually ride out to the road and grab the mail while I am out on these rides. This always makes me smirk. There has been more than one obstacle competition we have done where Simon refused to go near the mailbox. Yet he will stand on the road, with the neighbors horses just a few yards away whinnying greetings at him while I slowly open, collect, and flip through the mail before closing it and riding back onto the farm from the road.
There is one big hill behind our house to ride up. It’s long and has a spectacular view from the top.
There is a second hill across the way along a corn field that wraps up to the woods. It’s a really lovely farm to hack around. With all the fields and hills and a section of woods as well.
I love a good trail ride, but those involve trailering out and suck up quite a bit of time. They are not always practical. Where a farm hack I can keep short if I need to, or longer if I have the time.
I also enjoy a road hack and I am lucky to have several dirt roads I can loop around. Those rides tend to be more quick paced and riding at full attention. Although the roads are not busy with traffic, there is some traffic and the occasional dog or pony eating structure. One loop even has an assortment of sheep, cows and goats very closely lining the edges of the road for several miles of the ride. So keeping attentive is important.
So when it’s just a piece of mind I need a farm hack is grand.
It was a very rainy day at the Clifton Horse Society JPR. It went back and forth from heavy soaking, to medium rain, and on occasion, light rain. It also hung in the upper fifties all day, which made for a shocking weather change since it has been in the 90s with high humidity.
On my way there I did question why I was bothering to go. But I am no quitter!
Driving clip:
I was smart enough to put Simon’s sheet with neck on the evening before so I could at least tack up a nice dry pony.
The JPR had a “construction zone” theme which made for some pretty cool obstacles. I love when they have a theme for these rides.
Jenny and I headed out early, since there were so many cancelations we didn’t bother to wait around until our assigned time.
Obstacle 1: Pretty simple, walk to the first cone, transition to trot at that cone, stop at the second cone for a three second count, then walk on to the third cone.
Jenny: 10
Krista: 7
Obstacle 1 Video: We only have Jenny on this obstacle
Jenny had an excellent ride here. Simon did fine with the timing of his transitions but tossed his head with each one and had a little leap.
Obstacle 2: The backing obstacle. Start with your ponies butt facing the barrels and back through the shoot.
This should have been a good one for Simon and I, but nope. He was too full of himself to even get backed up to the barrels. This is the highest he has ever reared too, which is just silly. Doesn’t he sort of remind you of that cartoon purple elephant in a tutu here (Disney’s Fantasia)?
Jenny and King had an excellent go at this obstacle. I believe she got one point off for tapping a pole.
Jenny: 9
Krista: 1
Obstacle 2 Video:
Obstacle 3: The water trap. This was a pretty cool obstacle. there were poles on the ground with a tarp fixed over it with sand and water in it. Simply ride across it.
The judges told us that this was a challenging obstacle and no one had done it perfectly yet. King was not cool with it initially, but after we both had our go Jenny showed it to him and he marched on through it perfectly. Simon was huffing at it before we were even near it. He pawed at it and eventually marched on through it.
Jenny: 1
Krista: 5
Obstacle 3 Video:
Obstacle 4: The gate. lift the chain up, go through, put the chain back, only using one hand.
This is another obstacle that should have been easy for us, but tends to be hit or miss with Simon. Sometimes we score high and it goes great, and other times he is a loon about it and we bomb. This time around was a complete bomb. He acted afraid of the whole thing. You can see in the video he sniffs the sign and then leaps away from it. There was also a long nail sticking out of the pole to prevent the chain from dropping too far and it was right near his eye and I was a bit nervous he would toss his head and impale his eye, Murphy’s law and all.
Jenny cruised through this one with King as well. Not much to say about her rides, they were great.
Jenny: 9
Krista: 1
Obstacle 4 Video:
There were deer on course.
Obstacle 5: Trot straight through, no tapping or knocking anything. Stop at the cone and touch it with your foot.
Simon was still a bit wonky for this one but getting better. He jumps and has never refused so I was a bit surprised by his reaction. And he did not want to stand at the end, which is where I got marked down.
I believe King tapped some poles, and he list his momentum a bit but I am surprised her score was not higher here.
Jenny: 6
Krista: 5
Obstacle 5 Video:
Obstacle 6: The drag obstacle. Collect the rope from the pole, drag the hard hats around the barrel and back, putting the rope back on the pole. Do not hit anything with the hard hats.
I knew this one would be bad. We have worked on dragging and we just don’t seem to retain any improvement from one ride to the next. Each time its like starting over.
Jenny’s run was fantastic. Again.
I was happy I could drag it as far as I did. It was truly about what I expected. I could feel Simon bunched up and ready to blow up under me. We called this a win.
Jenny: 10
Krista: 3
Obstacle 6 Video:
Jenny rode her three year old, King. He is one nice horse. Very chill and easy going. She said she usually does ground work before riding but we did not bother with a “warm up” for this day since it was so gross out. Side note – a warm up would have been very helpful for Simon too. But King was still amazing. He is a good looking horse too, part Tennessee Walker and part Quarter Horse, and still young, I love his color too.
Obstacle 7: This obstacle involved riding up the path at a walk, picking up the vest and putting it on, ride around the barrel and back to the post. Take the vest off, put it back.
This one was extremely tight time wise. And the vest being wet and sticking to the pole, itself, and your own jackets was not helpful. We were warned in advance by the judges and told not too worry too much, just get it around us as best as we could. I did find the ride to the post to be rather long considering the one minute time limit. But we were also told they were being a bit lax on the timer because they were aware the vest was sticking to everything and slowing everyone down.
This was the first obstacle that didn’t suck for Simon and I. He had finally settled in somewhat. I had issues getting the vest on, as you can see in the video. it twisted up on itself and the second armhole was folded over. In retrospect I should have put my reins down and put it on with my right arm first, and over the head. But eh, we made it work.
Jenny did excellent as well, although the vest stuck to the pole for her. Once she got it off she was able to get it on simply.
Jenny: 10
Krista: 9
Obstacle 7 Video:
A lot of the trail was under water. There was a whole loop that was cut off for flooding. Jenny and I both found the ride to be a lot better without that useless loop, and we hope they will continue to cut it out.
The initial ride had a minimum finish time of two hours, meaning you couldn’t go faster than that. They removed that from the ride since the one loop was removed. But the course still took about two hours, and there was no back up at obstacles, we never had to wait.
Obstacle 8: Ride through the barrels. This one was easy, although the barrels were super close together and the lights were flashing. So a good test for a spooky horse.
Jenny cruised on through like nothing. I also had no issues. We both caught the first barrels with our feet which cost us each a point.
Jenny: 9
Krista: 9
Obstacle 8 Video:
Obstacle 9: Walk up to the bucket that was hanging off the tow hook on the back of the wrecker, stop, and collect a carrot, then walk back. The key here was your horse could not mess with the bucket and it was a full 4 points off if they stuck their head into the bucket. It was one point off if you did not stop fully.
Jenny made this thing look easy. Raking in those 10s! King did not care about the wrecker and its flashing lights or anything.
Simon was settled by now but feeling all his inquisitiveness, I had a feeling the bucket would be hard for him not to mess with. I was correct and he kept trying to stick his head in it, and it was a true challenge to prevent him from doing so. In retrospect I should have thrown away the one point for not stopping and grabbed the carrot on the ride by so he didn’t have time to go after the bucket. I think our games skills would have made that an easy task.
Jenny: 10
Krista: 6
Obstacle 9 Video:
Obstacle 10: ride to the cone and dismount. Lead your pony to the table, and stamp the paper. Return to the cone and remount using the block or from the ground.
Jenny again crushed this one. She did pull King to the side as she mounted which is what I think cost her the point. I think this was just a bit of his youngness showing.
Simon and I also had a good run. Finally.
Jenny: 9
Krista: 10
Obstacle 10 Video:
Jenny finished with an 83
Krista finished with a 56
I did notice a typo on the score results that CHS sent out, they flip flopped Jenny and my scores on obstacle 7. I emailed them about it and adjusted everything on here to be accurate.
I believe this is by far the lowest score I have gotten at a JPR, by a lot. we usually score in the 70s or 80s, putting us a solid 20-30 points down on this run. Ouch.
Good thing there is another ride this year to try and redeem ourselves at.
Blue Ridge Pony 