Teaser

I have been busy getting in lots of ride time, and have a couple adventures to write about.  But to hold you over until I actually get time to compose these posts, here are some photos of Simon and I at MGAA Mid-Atlantic #1 at PG Equestrian Center the weekend of April 28th. Photo credits to Ryan Crowley who is kind enough to share his art and include Simon and I in it.

Enjoy!

Photo: R Crowley

Simon and I taking it easy in the Bottle Shuttle Race.  We are picking up that bottle from the top of the barrel as we turn around it.

Photo: R Crowley

Simon and I in the Litter Race.  We ride down the field, turn around the litter and scoop one up with the stick, then ride back towards the start, dropping the litter into a waste bin.  The litter are old style water bottles with the ends cut off.  Its much harder to do that it appears.

Photo: R Crowley

Simon and I completing the 4-Flat Race.  We had collected a colored flag, and need to slide it into a small slot that matches the color of the flag.

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by riderofchaos on May 14, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by riderofchaos on May 14, 2012

https://blueridgepony.com/2012/05/14/teaser/

MGAA Mid-Atlantic #1 ~ 2012

Team Old School
Zoe, Carol Ann, Linda, Krista, Kim
Photo: Genevieve Arens

 This past weekend was the big season opener for the east coast mounted games season. We kicked it off with the first edition of the MGAA Mid-Atlantic Series held at the Price George’s Equestrian Center in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. Simon and I rode with our team, Old School, including usual team members; Linda, Kim and Carol Ann. We also asked our friend Zoe to join us for the weekend with her pony Cheyenne.

I started off the weekend with a lengthy hack around the grounds and then joined up with teammates and friends for a a nice little practice on Friday afternoon to help work out some of the silliness.

Photo: Genevieve Arens

Apparently it wasn’t enough because the first session on Saturday started out with Simon a little full of himself. This is typical of Simon, and something I just need to expect and work through until he grows out of it. He did a few little rears (I suspect his hooves are only going one or two feet off the ground) and some leaping starts and a few slow take offs when receiving hand offs. We also took out the end barrel in bottle shuttle, which I am blaming on Simon’s silliness and lack of focus. I managed to reset it relatively quickly without needing to dismount, and proceeded on. The rest of the session was pretty clean with very few mistakes team wide.

Photo: Genevieve Arens

Simon took a little lunch time nap in his portable corral while I took my turn as an assistant referee for the intermediate division.

Nap Time
Photo: Me

Photo: Genevieve Arens

We returned for the afternoon session with Simon in full effect. He moved out, he stopped, he turned, and I felt like we were a well matched pair with great communication and a worthy member of our team. I did miss a flag put in the 3 Pot Flag race. It was totally my fault and Simon was right there, ready to help me pull off a quick correction. Otherwise the session was pretty clean for Simon and I, with just a few other mistakes throughout the team.

Zoe lookin good in Navy and Yellow
Photo: Genevieve Arens

That night we had a fun potluck and social affair at our camp site. We got in lots of laughs and took down some good eats. We also took the moment to invite Zoe to be an official member of the team and she accepted! Yea!

Simon first off the Line
Photo: Ashley Desjardins

Zoe fits right in with the four of us and is such an upbeat, easy going person. She is fun and a real joy to have around. She is also a good rider and an asset to have in races. I am thrilled she accepted and is going to be sporting navy and yellow with us. So yea, Old School is now a 5 man team!

Hand off to Kim
Photo: Genevieve Arens

Sunday we woke up from a night of rain to a warm sunny morning. We hit the field feeling good and the team rode very well. Simon and I had a snafu in the Ball and Cone race, which is generally a pretty strong race for us. He is a true fossil pony, and will stand nicely for me to complete technical tasks like balancing tennis balls on the tops of cones. But Sunday, although he was stopping and standing, he kept turning to face the cone when I would lean over to place the ball, thereby putting it out of my reach. We were eventually successful, but it took a few attempts to reach the cone and ate up too much time. I was rather disappointed in this race, but overall, we had a very clean session with just a few mistakes team wide.

Simon waiting for the call to the start line
Photo: Ashley Desjardins

The 15 race session blew past in no time and we found ourselves in a solid second place at the end. The other teams were fantastic. Particularly our friendly favorites, Time Flies, who rock the pink and black gear. They are a fantastic well practiced team, who have a few members that can pull off vaults and reach items floating in buckets of water without dismounting. Two important skills our team very much lacks. Time Flies gives us a real challenge. They push us to try harder, practice more, and push for additional speed and accuracy. And the best part, they are fun and friendly and nothing but enjoyable to ride with. Which is common in the adult division where teams cheer each other on, compliment well pulled off skills and give occasional high fives amongst each other.

Team Time Flies
Photo: Ashley Desjardins

An excellent weekend, with lots of friends, fun, ponies and games. Old School grew in members, and together we have a real challenge to push for this season.

Simon and I got home late Sunday, but I decided not to take our customary Monday off, and we had a nice hack and got in a little technique practice for myself.

Moving into the changeover box for the start
Photo: Ashley Desjardins

In general I am seeing improvement in Simon.  After the first session I was very pleased with his starts, and noticed in some photos that he was out front of the other ponies quite often.  He also has picked up the pace since last year and made the end of the lane in line with the other ponies, and even ahead on some occasions.  His end turns have improved and he has not lost any of his excellent stopping or standing skills.  He has also improved slightly in bending poles, which is one of his worst races.  This weekend he did not drop his shoulder into any of the poles and he even had a lead change around one of them.

The next two weeks I will be going heavy practicing Ball and Cone, flag puts and turning around barrels.

With the first installment of the series behind us, we have four more to up our game and catch Time Flies.

Photo: Me

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by riderofchaos on May 1, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by riderofchaos on May 1, 2012

https://blueridgepony.com/2012/05/01/mgaa-mid-atlantic-1-2012/

Horse Racing; Historic, Nostalgic, Entertainment, Monetary, Cruel – 2012

Grand National Track (grandnational-tips.co.uk)

This past weekend the Grand National Hunt Race was run near Liverpool, England.  It is a world famous annual steeplechase, with history dating back to 1829. 

The Grand National is a real beast of a race.  It requires competitors to traverses 30 fences over an incredible 4 mile course taking about 9 minutes to complete.  This year 40 horses started the race.  The largest field consisted of 66 runners in 1929.  The age of the horse tends to be older than most US race horses with all previous winners falling between the ages of 5 and 15 years old.  Mares are permitted as are geldings.  Many of the horses that start this race, do not finish it.  The most horses to have completed the race was 23 in 1984 and the smallest number to finish was 2 horses in 1928. 

This is the copy of the National Velvet Book that I have

A little comparison can be made using the popular US thoroughbred race, the Kentucky Derby, which is run on the flat over a 1 ¼ mile course that takes about two minutes to complete.  It is run on a dirt tack and requires horses starting to be three year old Thoroughbreds.  The field usually consists of 20 horses and they do permit fillies.   The Kentucky Derby is the longest continuously run horse sport in US history. 

Both races have attracted the attention of animal activist for an array of reasons.  There were two horse deaths at this year’s Grand Nationals.  You can see in the video that the pack is diverted around one of the fences on the second loop to avoid an injured horse being euthanized behind a black curtain.  The statistics state that there are six deaths per 439 horses that take part in the race, taken from 2000-2010 (found that on Wikipedia).  Thoroughbred racing, speaking of the industry as a whole, is similarly pinned for several reasons including the young, under developed age of the horses that causes some of them to breakdown.  This industry is also criticized with how the horses are treated at the end of their very short racing careers.  Both races and industries do attract a massive amount of spectators and have become part of tradition with lengthy histories with a lot of financial backing.   And both the Grand National and the Thoroughbred Racing industry are trying to make compromises and enact better policies to minimize some of the issues.

Velvet and Mi - Image from the Movie

The race is a bit nostalgic, and when I brought it up to a friend she said when she was a girl and read the book, National Velvet, she wanted to ride Pie in the Grand National.   Although now that she is an adult, the thought of riding in it scares the pants off of her.  I also read the book and watched the 1944 movie, over and over again.  I also wanted to be Velvet Brown, played in the movie by Elizabeth Taylor.  The book was published in 1935, with the story of this 12 year old girl taking place in England in the 1920’s,  when it was still common for armatures to take part in the race.  Although not women.  Velvet took an unruly horse and with the help of her best friend Mi, played by a young Mickey Rooney  in the film, trained for the Grand National.  With her identity and gender hidden, she took part in and won the race.  Quite the story for the horse crazed little girl! 

Sure sure, Velvet passes for a Russian Man, she doesn't look anything like a 12yo British girl. (image from the movie)

This weekend I looked at amazing and horrendous pictures taken at the 2012 Grand National.  I won’t place any of the photos in this post because I am not sure if that is ok since they are all professional and such.  But feel free to Google image search “Grand National 2012” for yourself.  If you have any interest in amazing action photography, or train-wreck-like-incidents caught on film, it will be worth your effort. 

I also watched the video of the race, which I have stuck into this post for your viewing pleasure.  Pretty wild.  Another friend commented that those animals want to win.  Which I think is pretty clear towards the middle where a rider-less horse leads the pack, and is clearly pushing to continue on in the lead.  The fences range between about 4 ½ and 5 feet, with varying ditches and drops added in.  Take a watch.  Even my husband, who has no interest in horses or any type of horse racing, was captivated. 

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by riderofchaos on April 17, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by riderofchaos on April 17, 2012

https://blueridgepony.com/2012/04/17/horse-racing-historic-nostalgic-entertainment-monetary-cruel/

Trail Report: Tillman Road – Hearthstone Lake Awkward Loop

Sunday 04/08/12 – Tillman Road, Hearthstone Lake, Awkward Loop

This is a very short loop, a little awkward, and not very direct or clearly developed as a loop. 

Simon at the end of our ride

Park: I parked on the side of Tillman Rd where it wraps around Hearthstone Lake Damn. 

The lake is stocked with trout

Loop – If standing on the road and facing the damn, ride right along Tillman to the first fire road on the left.  It is on a sharp curve in the road and bears up hill.  There is a fire road gate, closed. 

Travel up the road, it is very short, and ends at the top of the damn.  It appears to be a large field.  It is earth that is used to create a damn. 

Turn left and travel along the top of the earth damn, parallel with Tillman Rd.  It will be visable after a bit on the left, down the hill. 

The view of the top of the damn. View from the the end of the very short fireroad that loop starts out on.

The Lake will appear on the right.  Continue to ride along the top of the damn to the hill.  Turn go right and down the damn to the lake.  It is a bit rocky under the grass, big rocks, so be weary.  There are a few pathes, a few yards in length, that will put you on the trail around the lake.  Some of them are rougher than others. 

Ride around the lake and out to the fireroad.  Follow the fire road up and then down to Tillman, make a left and you’ll be back to where you parked. 

The little trail near the lake parking.

I made a few detours along the ride in the name of exploration.  The first deviation I made was to pop onto trail #434.  This is at the bottom of the fireroad close to the lake parking area.  it tromps back through a flood area (which the whole lake area is).  It was a neat little twisty trail through soft footing which ends shortly at a creek.  You can see across the creek where the trail continues.  I spotted one of the yellow blazed trees, but the creek is full of washed up fallen branches and trees.  It would be a little difficult to cross on foot, clambering over the wash, but it was certainly out of the question with a pony in tow. 

Itchy Pony

I also explored another trail.  It was found by continuing just a bit father up the fire road from the lake.  At about the crest of the fill is an unnumbered trail on the right.  It had two small entrances just a few yards apart, one that was marked by a rather old and shot up “no vehicals” yellow sign. 

A pretty photo of the sky that day

I followed this trail up for about 30 minutes.  It was mostly up hill but eventially leveled out somewhat.  It is cearly a used trail, though not heavily, and was rather over grown.  There is currently no way a larger horse would fit on the trail without quite a bit of difficulty.  I kept expecting it to pop out at an incredible over look or some super secrete mushroom hunting honey pot spot, but after 30 minutes I had enough of being beat up by the tree branches and over growth and decided to call it. 

I turned around and hiked back down on foot with Simon following behind me.  There were a lot of broken back branches and there were clear routs repeatedly used to navigate around most of the larger falled debree, although there were still a few newer ones that did not appear to have been previously navigated around. 

Itchy Pony photo #2

Another neat feature to this loop, would be the damn over spill pool.  It lays near the bottom of the damn, where the road curves around and there is easy pull over for parking.  It is not possible to miss from the car while driving on Tillman. 

I did not venture down to it on this trip, but it is very clear and blue and rather deep, with good sitting rocks around the edges. 

And a bunch of other photos of the day’s adventure.  Enjoy.

My rig parked on Tillman from the top of the damn - gives perspective

a View of the lake from on top of the damn

Daisy on top of the damn

Daisy looking down at Tillman from the top of the damn

Daisy looking down at the pool down by Tillman

riding along the top of the damn. Make a right at the end and go down the damn to the lake.

Simon at the lake.

Riding along trail 434

An old uproot tree on trail 434 in the flood area.

on trail 434 there were a lot of neat rounded river rocks caught up in roots and stumps like this.

This is where trail 434 corsses the creek and continues over on the otherside in those trees.

Itchy pony photo #3

Hearthstone Lake, the damn side, from Tillman Rd, right by the pullover parking.

and a close up of the sign.

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by riderofchaos on April 10, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by riderofchaos on April 10, 2012

https://blueridgepony.com/2012/04/10/trail-report-tillman-road-heartlake-awkward-loop/

Simon Turns 6 Years Old Today – 2012

Simon on the left. This is one of his for sale ad photos. Pistol is on the right.

Today is Simon’s birthday.  He is six years old now.  All grown up with no excuses to be a twit ever again.  I have never had a pony that I knew an actual age or birth date for.  Unless you are dealing with a registered horse, or a farm breed, it’s not likely.

Simon is basically a farm breed pony though.  The nice lady, Linda, I purchased him from in Ohio, had Simon’s grandmother.  She was a Dartmoor pony Linda picked up at a slaughter auction who was pregnant by a Percheron, who was also being sold at the auction.  Her daughter, who was a Dartmoor Percheron cross, was Simon’s mom.  Linda still had his dad when I got Simon.  He is a dark brown paint, leaner built Chincoteague pony.

Another of his for sale ad photos

Simon’s original owner, Linda, is into driving and wagon trains and has a love for ponies.  So she breed the two in hopes of getting a draft pony and came out with a colt she named Pistol.  She breed them again in hopes of coming out with a matched pair and got another colt she named Trigger.  So she had Pistol and Trigger.

a photo from his for sale ad. Simon is the one closest to us.

Pistol and Trigger were pretty close, both palomino paints but Simon got more of the draft body and was a half a hand taller.  She raised and trained the two and spent a year driving the pair on wagon trains.

One of our first rides at home.
February 7, 2011

At the end of the season she decided they were just not a good match, with their strides being too far off and she began working more with her mule pair.  She also decided that she was getting older and keeping her health in mind, she decided to thin her herd one at a time.

I saw an ad for a draft cross pony named Trigger.  He was listed as a coming five year old that rides and drives.  I spoke to Linda on the phone and explained what I was looking for.  I told her I was recovering from a pretty nasty riding injury and had just gotten the ok to start riding again.  I needed a safe pony, that I could bond with, but that would still give me enough challenge to be enjoyable and fun.  She was a little hesitant to sell Simon but really thought him and I would be a good match.  And finding a good home for him was very important to her.  It sounded so good to me that I took my trailer with me to try him out.

It was a six hour drive, through the mountains, across West Virginia, and eventually over one lane bridges and down narrow dirt, ice edged roads. We parked at the bottom of their ice sheet of a driveway and around the bend in the road came this big eyed, fuzzy pony.

One of our first rides at home.
February 7, 2011

Linda rode over and said hello, and then trotted and cantered him around in a small muddy area on the shoulder of the road.  Then she hopped off and I laboriously climbed on (at the time, because of my injury, I was having a lot of trouble mounting).  Simon stood perfectly still as she helped give my bottom a push up.  Then I trotted around and fell immediately in love.

My husband made the drive out with me and said I had a huge grin on my face.  I admit I was near tears knowing I had found my pony.  Twisted between not wanting to get off and leave the free feeling of being on the perfect pony, that my soul so badly needed.  While also wanting to get this dream pony in my trailer and back to my home before this lady could change her mind, I looked at her and said, ‘Thank you.”

Sporting a modified clip job and on one of our first solo trail rides
February 13, 2011

I climbed off, reached in my pocket and pulled out the $800 asking price in cash, and handed it to her.  A usual thrifty shopper, I never thought for a moment to dicker about Simon’s price.  To me, this pony was worth considerably more that I could possible pay.

And that’s where it started.

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by riderofchaos on April 6, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by riderofchaos on April 6, 2012

https://blueridgepony.com/2012/04/06/simon-turns-6-yeas-old-today/

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