Equestrian Journey Blog Hop: What will you not do?

I have never been so sick of sitting down. My leg hurts and my hands are bruising from sticks of death (read: crutches). 

So today I'm participating in Equestrian Journeys' first blog hop! Today she asks 'What will you NOT do?'

Firstly I will not ride with an instructor who is blatantly rude, ignorant or not listening to me. I'm paying you to learn and to have an enjoyable time and if I feel uncomfortable, unsafe or disregarded on more than one occasion then theres a problem. I took one riding lesson with an instructor on holiday once who put me on a horse she randomly selected out of the field, saying "There he looks pretty - you can ride him today" (she also never asked my ability or assessed me at all). Needless to say we left that property pretty quickly, nearly tripping over random pieces of equipment left lying around the place, generally the horses didn't look that well cared for and the two staff the we saw were extremely rude. No thanks!

Quick Update (Friday Foto)

This is has been my state since yesterday:

No it's not broken, it's actually a super bad infection from who knows where, causing bad swelling and bad, bad, bad pain (I can't walk on it, hello crutches!) By the way my leg on the left is normal, the right is the infected one :( basically if it doesn't clear up by tomorrow then I'll have to go to hospital, because it may get into my blood stream. So I had to cancel riding and volleying for tomorrow. Boooooo.

Side note; I told mum that'd I'd "cold hose it and stick it in a bucket of Epsom salts and water to draw out infection"😂

Funny how they get into our heads!

"Horse riding is easy, you just sit there!"

Ok, so I was talking a few people lately and they all had these 'misconceptions' about horse riding, horses and equestrians. So what I thought I'd do is TELL THEM THE FUCKING TRUTH. Because some of these are so blatantly ignorant, silly and just plain stupid! What I'll probably do is write about one per week/per post because I don't think I'd be able to write about more than one at a time XD

1. "Horse riding is easy, you just sit there! Also it's not a sport."

Let me try and be calm and rational here. Firstly what about horse riding looks 'easy'? The fact that we get a better workout riding for an hour than you do running for two? Riding a horse is a full body workout, it works more muscles than most other sports, also it's not just the riding, it's the grooming, tacking up, untacking, mucking out and other upkeep. Being an equestrian requires time, effort and COMMITMENT. You can't just ride once or twice and then leave, especially when you own one of the beasties :) Horse riding is also an OFFICIAL sport in the OLYMPICS, and defined by the dictionary as "A modern international sports competition, held once every four years". It's a SPORT competition, you can't compete in the olympics in a discipline that isn't a sport.

- End Rant -

Wordless Wednesy (Ok Maybe Wordless Thursday)

"Hi, this is my friend"

November's 10 Questions - From L. Williams

So, the lovely L. Williams, over at Viva Carlos has brought us yet another 10 questions post! So here we go...

1. Have you ever owned a horse?

Nope :( Hopefully soon though!

I want this 'lil nugget in my clutches

2. What is your favourite aspect of your discipline?

Well, seeing as I really don't have one specific discipline - I basically do whatever my instructor thinks is best for the day (or what she wants to work on with us) - I think that the best thing about horse riding is its not just the riding, I've made some really awesome friends through riding + I've learnt heaps from amazing people!

3. What pet peeves do you have concerning your discipline?

I don't experience this much at GV (I have witnessed this at a few other barns) but the mentality by some people of "If you don't have the latest riding clothes, the best horse and expensive tack then your obviously not a good rider". Firstly, what the fuck. I honestly can't comprehend these people!

4. Do you do barn chores?

I LOVE barn chores! Yes, I know I'm strange but I love doing anything remotely horsey, yes this does include shovelling their shit.

5. What is your least favourite barn chore?

Saddle Greasing. You try greasing 25 odd saddles in a row and tell me how it feels.

6. What do you consider the worst vice in a horse?

I'm going to have to go with rearing, I reckon its one of the most dangerous vices because once a horse is in the air it's really gravity that takes over, and lets be honest who trusts gravity?

7. What saddle brand is your favourite?

I've ridden in a Thorowgood and a Ascot  and my god they are 1000000x more comfortable than the kincade redi rides I ride on in lessons, though to be fair the kincade's aren't too bad.

8. Do you ride with a quarter sheet in the winter?

Never have, and probably never will, lol :P

9. Does your horse wear boots? What kind?

My imaginary horse doesn't :P I haven't actually ridden a horse that wears boots at all!

10. Full seat or knee patch breeches?

I've always ridden in knee patch jods, however lately (since the beginning of the year) I've been wearing through them suuuuper quick! Holes appearing in the 'seat' area in a month and completely unusable by 3 months (despite sewing up all the holes, the material is just completely worn through). So I though I'd just go and grab a pair of full seat jods, but when I tried them on in the store I couldn't life my leg up much, I'd have a hard time getting on a shetland to put it in perspective! I think its the stiffness of the full seat, tbh it feels like a thick piece of fabric tacked on, not built into the jods at all. So I was thinking of grabbing myself a pair of Kerrits Flex Tight II Full Seat, however I still don't know what these would feel like and I can't find anywhere to try them on. So instead I was thinking of buying Kerrits Flow Rise Performance Riding Tight, I've read multiple reviews on these and from what I've heard people say they're long lasting - people have had there pairs for over a year (way over a year!) despite the fact that they are a spandex material. Also added bonus is they're a fairly cool material compared to the dublin jods I've been wearing, and I live in Aus - and it gets goddamn hot here!!

The Flex Tight II Full Seat

The Flow Rise Performance Riding Tight

They both come in various colours btw.

So does anyone have any experience with Kerrits? I'd love to hear what you have to say!

Success! + Sweet and Sour News

So as you may or may not be aware I had my first 'barn training show jumping thingy' yesterday, and if I say so myself it was a success!

"Hai", Also this is not Wilfred.

My instructor swapped me onto a different horse in the morning, so instead of Biscuits I ended up riding Wilfred, very similar to Ms. Biscuits in size and shape (a few extra kilos there :') however vastly different in temperament and how he goes. It was my first time riding him, however we did do alright and managed to pull a 3rd overall! In our first round he ran out on jump 5a (8 jump course, at like 30 or 40cm) due to me not putting enough leg on him, and in our second round we knocked jump 7 because he has a tendency to forget about his back feet and I forgot to remind him they existed!

This, my friends, is Mr. Wilfred and moi. This is also proof that I actually get on a horse :')

Now I have a sweet and sour stale/news, on Thursday last week one of GV's broodmares gave birth to a gorgeous little palomino colt however late on Sunday night/early Monday morning Buffy (the mare) sadly passed away :( I don't know what caused it, or how it happened but I do know that the lovely little colt is now in a paddock separate to the rest of the broodmare herd with a surrogate mare. On the bright side the foal is doing fine, and he got is colustrum and vital first few days of nutrients from Buffy and all is looking well for him!

This gorgeous boy, is now orphaned :( That lovely golden rump was, since passed away, Buffy.

Photography credit to "F"

ABC's Equestrian Style

Am I starting to blog in some sort of fashionable pattern? 

Haha, No.

Today I bring you your ABC's... Equestrianified (It is now a word, deal with it.)

A  is for Apples, aka why your horse does anything for you.

B is for Buckets. One can never have enough buckets.

C is for "Could you *please* get off my foot, for the 1000th time today".

D is for Dressage.

E is for Equestrians. Does this need explanation?

F is for Falling, the reason the frozen peas don't actually get eaten.

G is for "GET OFF MY FUCKING FOOT NOW!!"

H is for Horse, the money eating monster.

I is for Injuries, quite common in both horses and riders.

J is for Jumping, jump all the jumps.

K is for Kewl, because I don't have anything to go here.

L is for Life. "I don't have a life, I have a horse".

M is for Money. All money may now be donated towards all le ponies.

N is for Never, often said but never adhered to.

O is for "Oh shit". A remarkably common term heard when around horses. 

P is for Ponies, though to be "Baby horses" by non horsey folk.

Q is for Quadriceps, used when riding.

R is for Riding, or as non horse folk would put it "endangering your life".

S is for Stirrupless work - the reason we're all a little bit bowlegged.

T is for Trainers, the most amazing and evil people on the planet :D

U is for "Uh Oh".

V is for Vet, "We see each other so often we might as well be best friends!"

W is for "Wheres the hoofpick?"

X is for Xylophone, because not everything can be horsified.

Y is for "Yes you will walk past it, I don't care if is going to eat you".

Z is for Zebra, a close relative of the horse.

Anyway I hope you found that at least a little bit funny, and if your lucky I might have pictures of me actually on a horse!!! Yes, the jumping day is tomorrow - and I'm not remotely prepared... Oh well :P

Also, this is what happens when a friend and I are bored in maths...