Because it's Monday, who needs words when there are fluffy baby pony pictures to look at, right?
Plus bonus horse-sized baby too, out with the yearling shetlands bc poor thing is apparently an orphan.
Seriously tho, these little babies are so freakin friendly. We literally just pulled up in the trailer (immediately behind the camera) and they all hustled right over to the fence line to say hi.
Which, obviously, nobody turns down an offer like that haha.
Omg their little noses and ears are just ridiculous. I don't think I'll ever get over teeny tiny horses haha.
And you just gotta love friendly babies. I mean, sure, some horses are more naturally reserved or distant. But still. Give me a good sociable pony any day!
Of course they were even more excited to learn that someone (ahem, yours truly) had a pocket full of breath mints.
Which was ridiculous in its own right. Considering a life saver is typically more than a fleeting taste of flavor for our larger equine friends. Like, say, Wick.
These guys actually had to spend a solid couple of moments chewing each haha.
All the same tho, they were always ready for more. Pushy little buggers haha.
Don't get me wrong - there was more to this weekend than just fussing around with yearling shetlands. For instance, we had our weekly lesson at OF (the farm these guys call home).
Plus I made it up for a lesson with Dan on one of his horses. First time I had seen him since... gosh mid-June? It's hard to schedule anything when I don't have something for him to teach me on at my barn, and his barn is so far away. We'll figure it out tho.
There's also one last segment to the rider safety survey. So there will certainly be more to tell soon (once I get around to writing haha). In the meantime, tho. PONIES.
So legitimately I think this needs to be a real thing. Seriously. That feeling (all you bloggers must certainly know it) of knowing you should probably get a post out... but not being all that sure what the hell to even write about. So you start swiping through your recent photos like, wtf have I even done recently?
And so. Dear readers, friends, fellow horse ppl who maybe just kinda have lots of random pictures on your phones: may I present a Friday photo dump of lots of little things that will be forced into one single horse-shaped post.
For starters - let's see a show of hands here, who streamed the Olympic games while at work? All of you, I'd wager, at some point or another haha. Alas, I ran into the struggle of not having actual cable (bc of course I don't, I live under a rock, remember?) so Austen was kind enough to provide her mother's cable login credentials so I could watch. Um, thanks mama G!
We also made another trip back to Olde Hope Farms for Brita and lesson director R's horse show. I mostly just played spectator and pretend groom (meaning: person who hands you cold water and beer), and not very sadly at that seeing as it was super hot out. Still tho - what a fun day. All horses and riders performed very well, with Brita and Wick even locking down their first dressage score in the 20s at novice!
Our show set up was aaaaalmost on point. Almost. So close. Except. Well. My canopy (the blue one) died a sudden and tragic death at its first outing at Plantation earlier this summer (Allison was there to witness lol). It still.... kinda? does the job? But... not really. Idk. It stood up for the whole day tho so I'm gonna call it a win - we needed that shade!
Especially bc Brita got a puppy!!!!! And this little puppy needed it's shade for naps!!
Seriously tho, how sweet is she?
And then we found an EVEN SMALLER PUPPY OMG!
On a slightly less cute note, my ensuing week kicked off with a flight out to Memphis for quite the work-related roadtrip through the South - a region that I hadn't previously gotten to know. But we certainly got to see a lot of it on this trip, with plenty of stops along the way! (Tho, in all honestly, we didn't actually stop in Greenville or Greenwood, but they were notable landmarks along the way all the same).
My colleague roadtripping with me has actually lived in the Delta before, and knew all the history and all the landmarks and had very personal connections to everything. Including needing to make a quick pit stop at Miss State for a picture to send his daughter.
I gotta say - all that insider info definitely gave the trip a better shape than had I just gone through it all by my lonesome yankee self haha (nvm that Maryland is technically south of the Mason-Dixon line - we like to say that Baltimore has all of the Northern charm and Southern efficiency haha).
Once back in Baltimore, things continued on their hot August summery ways. Including the hatching of all our cicadas. Such crazy weird bugs. Kinda creepy actually, watching them emerge from their armored shells. But cool. If you're into that kind of thing... (which obvi I am lol)
Mostly tho it's always nice to come back home bc of the kitties. They haven't gotten too mad at all my absences bc it's been balanced out by working remotely for the first time ever. So even tho I am technically out of town and away more than ever before, they are actually still seeing more of me bc of working from home. So I guess the cats are the real winners in my life choices haha.
I'm trying to fix that balance tho. #needsmoarhorses, ya know? I'm working on it. An intro lesson at a new barn with this elder statesman Remmy went a long way towards remedying that. Not an awful lot to share yet - but I'm feeling optimistic about getting back into a regular riding routine with actual full-sized horses who probably aren't neglected problem children lol.
Like this poor problem child. Oh Krimpet, sweet thing. She was SO TIRED OMG before this ride. It's camp season and she's workin' her little butt off apparently. Which isn't the worst thing... except for some reason they decided to free jump her for camp - having her go pretty high for a pony (tho as you have seen she's actually quite a nice jumper).
Which. Well. She jumped that 3'6 fence no problem, and proceeded to jump right on out of the arena. Bc guys. This pony aint stupid haha. I'm not totally sure why they chose to take a sour baby horse with a poor work ethic and run it through a scope test... Especially when it resulted in teaching an already-naughty pony a new trick... But whatever. Nobody asked me and it's sure as hell not my horse, so I don't call the shots.
So whatever. Greener grass beckons. In the meantime, my cats are kinda judging me for even considering life outside the walls. Well. OG is maybe still curious, but Martini knows. Ohh he knows. He's got it figured out all right haha.
What about you - what story would the recent photos in your phone tell?
Ok let's dig into a few more data elements from the survey. Starting with identifying our actual response group. Unsurprisingly, the survey got the most responses on the first day it was published (114 of 288 responses).
Over the next couple days it picked up a few more both from this blog and from those of you who shared the survey elsewhere (thank you!) - netting another 74 after two more days. Eventing Nation shared the survey to garner 84 new responses, and the rest (16) trickled in over the remaining days before the survey closed.
By the nature of 'Fraidy Cat Eventing's audience here, and the share from Eventing Nation, the survey received responses primarily from eventers, many of whom dabble in dressage. Nearly a third are h/j riders, and there were many write-in responses for western disciplines (including reining and breed shows), trail riding, and fox hunting.
It's notable that some of the answers on the gear question from Part I can be explained by the distribution of preferred disciplines among survey respondents.
For example, full seat breeches and rubberized reins elicited more responses than knee patch breeches or laced reins - likely due more to their popularity and common use with eventers and dressage riders. Tho there is a slight difference in proportions, it's not actually as large as that chart would make it seem.
I was curious to see if this variation in preferred disciplines would play a role in how riders choose new helmets.
The survey asked: On a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the most important, what is most important to you when purchasing a riding helmet?
This was particularly interesting because these results stayed the same regardless of preferred discipline. It was a close race between Fit and Certification / Approvals, but those two factors hold a strong lead over any other choice.
Of note: the only measure in which this helmet priority order shifted was when considering age.
Riders in the 65-75 and under-15 age groups ranked Price as "least important." Perhaps because the under-15 riders aren't paying the bills? Or the 65-75 riders are beyond pinching pennies? Either way, those two age groups were very small and therefore subject to higher degrees of skew.
And the race between Fit and Certifications / Approvals was closest in the 25-35 age bracket.
More helmet tidbits:
91% of survey respondents wear a helmet every ride
98% wear an ASTM/SEI approved helmet (when they wear one)
And 58% research their helmets beyond learning whether they are ASTM/SEI certified before purchasing.
Survey respondents also reaffirmed what we already know: To ride means to fall.
I should clarify that just one person reported having never fallen off - so while I think it's safe to say that person was probably an outlier, they're included here for the sake of transparency in reporting. Otherwise we might expect to see this stat reading "100% of riders have fallen off."
Regardless, basically all riders have fallen off, and just over half have done so within the past year.
What surprised me, tho, was how few report a fall-related injury in the past year - just 16% (44 respondents). I'm not sure why I expected that number to be larger, and I'm not trying to say that 44 injuries is insignificant by any means. It's interesting, tho.
And of those survey respondents who were injured in a fall,
19%believe that different equipment could have reduced the impact of the fall.
And 10%believe that different equipment could have prevented the fall.
These stats further reaffirm what we already know: When riding horses, accidents will happen. And sometimes those accidents will result in injury. Safety gear and equipment are not enough to prevent accidents from happening, but they play an important role in risk mitigation.
Stay tuned for still a little more to come - mostly as it relates to rider opinions surrounding different behaviors and activities.
It was JenJ who introduced me to that phrase back when I first wrote about Krimpet. And naturally she was spot on when it comes to this little baby pony mare. Four letter words. So many of them. Le sigh.
stinkin adorable tho!
Long story short, I took Ms Pony Thang xc schooling at OF last weekend. While it's entirely possible that this horse has successfully been out cross country before, perhaps with her previous owner, to my knowledge she hasn't made it through a schooling without tossing her rider at least once. (in fact her current owner is still on crutches from the last time Krimpet was ridden out in the open...)
Alas we did not break the streak this go round... but it was honestly still a pretty good outing!
a little peek at the candy cane, but up and over no problem!
And thanks to my intrepid videographer Brita, we've got all kinds of fun pictures haha. Ooooooh. And video. Omg. The video guys. Brace yourself - it's coming!
cantering through the open like an adult!
I was a little late to the schooling so we warmed up fairly quickly - mostly just checking on the steering aids since this pony is really terribly herd bound. Everything seemed to be in order, and she managed a couple quick canters without any sass, so we moved on quickly to little logs on the ground (with the aid of a lead horse haha).
pony actually looks somewhat confident out there!
Aside from getting left behind at the first little log, and having to take a peek at another (then proceed to step over at the walk), the pony was actually quite good and we were able to cut the cord with our lead horse for a quick circuit of all the little logs in the field. I gotta say - this horse is surprisingly easy to jump when she's going. The spots kinda just present themselves!
baby banks are nbd
Next up was the water, where we basically just went up and down the banks while the other riders schooled over bigger stuff.
#bossmare
Krimpet went up without hesitation but showed a little more reluctance to go down. It was fine tho - a couple passes through and she was jumping down like a seasoned veteran.
seriously tho, how cute?!?
I almost felt like we could be done with that, simple as it was. Especially since it was SO HOT OMG out haha. But no - trainer P took me to task for not actually taking the pony, who was FINE, over some more appropriate jumps.
clearly not impressed haha
So we did that too and Krimpet couldn't have cared less. Good baby pony mare.
mayyyyybe the nicest trot jump i've ever ridden
Tho for most of the "bigger" jumps I opted to use a lead horse, which seemed to work out just fine.
no problem with coops either
Krimpet was happy to go wherever the other horses went, so we enjoyed some fun little canters through fields and woods and streams and such.
so fierce tho
Then on to the ditches. Where again Krimpet seemed to warm up nicely to them after some initial uncertainty. Tho I got left behind once pretty good, and the next time after maybe was a bit behind too and.... well... pony is apparently not very forgiving.
going...... going..... gone
So that snotty little pony just up and bucked me right off. Ugh. Ouch. Talk about rude!
It was definitely not the most pleasant experience... maybe the worst of the year (physically, at least. my {multiple} falls at that jumper show with Isabel were definitely WAY worse on the emotional scale lol). But the good ol' tuck-n-roll served me well and I as basically unscathed.
she had been going so well!
The pony was maybe slightly chastened when I got back on and got her going again - back over the ditch again (not on the video) and then up and over a few more fences.
slightly looky fence
The next fence up was basically OF's version of a BN trakehner. There wasn't actually a true ditch under it, but it was dug out enough behind that log on the ground to give the idea. We flubbed our first attempt over it but then more or less got it right.
And of course I was taking no chances on the landing side any more haha. Pony had her trust privileges revoked!!!
good over the bench! and let's just ignore that my heels are dug so far into her sides that there's daylight between my knee and the saddle lol
She was fine tho. I was kinda sad not to get the last couple jumps on video but Krimpet was basically perfectly behaved.
You'll see it in the video - she actually looks like a pretty cool little pony. Very green and needs miles. And obviously that buck really fucking sucks (but is somehow oddly mesmerizing to watch lol). But cool none the less.
naughty naughty pony
So perhaps if nothing else, this post will serve as some nice mid-week comic relief lol. I've already had a couple friends tell me they had to watch that slo mo over and over again since it brought all kinds of childhood memories flooding back. Did any of you ever grow up with a pony that bucked you off all the time?
Thank you to everyone who completed the 'Fraidy Cat Eventing Rider Safety Survey! The survey is now closed and am I thrilled with the 288 unique respondents.
There's a lot of rich data that I'm hoping to parse into meaningful insights. In particular, I love the commentary adjoining most questions. For example, the following cloud is built off your comments from the question digging into the various pieces of gear you have used that have been directly involved in an accident (for better or worse).
Actually - the commentary was pretty telling in that particular instance bc many of you scratched your head at the question, observing, 'This is all just regular gear, I don't understand the point of this question!'
While other comments were more along the lines of 'Oh girl, grab yourself a cup of coffee and sit right on down bc I have a little story to tell you!'
That difference, right there, is exactly why I conducted this survey. We are programmed to learn through experiences. We know what we have lived. And as our individual experience with horses grows (86% of survey respondents have been riding for 10+ years), we naturally tend to give more weight to our own experiences, while discounting the likelihood of things that haven't already happened to us. The more we have seen, the more we think we've seen it all.
The following chart looks at the number of responses for each piece of gear listed, distinguishing where respondents felt like the gear caused an accident or contributed to the severity (grays) or instances where the gear prevented an accident or reduced the severity (blues).
A lot of time could be spent unpacking the above chart - what does it mean, and what are the implications? How can riders use this information to make better choices about gear?
My three key takeaways from are as follows:
The old faithfuls require care and attention too. Bits, girths and stirrups are most commonly involved in accidents, for better or worse. These are arguably the critical components of standard gear, regardless of discipline. Survey data reaffirms that problems with this gear can and will lead to an accident, while simultaneously demonstrating that they also play a key role in keeping riders safe. Bottom line: be conscientious about the basics.
Neck straps are a winning proposition. Neck straps are the single piece of gear exclusively cited for preventing or reducing the severity of an accident, with over 40% of survey respondents giving them credit. As there is no apparent downfall to riding with a neck strap according to this survey, riders may see real value in adding one to the standard getup.
Riding gloves make life better. Or, at least according to the survey, riding gloves prevent things from getting worse. A full quarter of survey respondents claim that riding gloves reduced the severity of an accident. These are an easy and cost-effective method to diminish risk.
***
More thoughts to come on the survey and resulting findings soon. In the meantime, the participation contest winner has been drawn via Excel's random number generator.
Congrats to Hannah R - you should receive your $25 Riding Warehouse gift certificate via email today!
Thank you as always L Williams for helping me keep the content coming even when my own saddle time is lacking! Not that that hasn't stopped me from milking out every last word from the moments I *do* spend with the ponies haha.
So here's some light reading for your Friday morning - enjoy!
1. What is your biggest source of caffeine that gets you through the day? My beloved iced coffee cup the size of my face, spiked with a couple shots of espresso =D
2. Do you honestly think your trainer is the best trainer for you? This is an easy "No" bc I have so many trainers, how could any one be the best? I think each of them adds value in different ways to my ride. Sometimes it's all about technique and precision and method, sometimes it's lecture and talking or thinking it out, and sometimes it's just about getting out there and doing it and seeing what happens.
3. One token of advice a fellow rider/trainer/horse person told you that you still remember to this day.
"Experience is that thing you get right after you needed it."
"If you don't like the way it looks the first time, ride it with everything you got bc it's not going to look any better the second time."
"If things aren't working you're probably going too fast."
"Confidence building, not confidence proving."
"Horses learn in the release."
"Learn from people whose horses get old."
lots of questions about trainers in this month's edition, so here - enjoy a couple pics of my jumping trainers that i bought last fall but never used
4. If riding meant costing your family so much money that they'd basically be on the poverty line, or making your family terribly unhappy, would you still do it? Lol this question .... the only possible answer here would shine a bright brilliant light on my extreme selfishness haha, so I plead the 5th ;)
5. Would you ride while pregnant? Sure but... um. Thanks but no thanks on all that noise haha
6. How do you tell when a horse likes someone/has bonded with you or someone else? Tricky question! As someone who has always enjoyed feeding shifts at barns, I love that feeling of walking up to a field full of hungry horses, looking at you eyes aflame with undying love. Of course that look goes away as soon as they eat haha.
I also appreciate when a horse keeps their attention on me when there are other distractions around. Some of that tho is more attributable to me believing that effective training requires that I be more interesting to the horse than their surroundings. However that needs to happen.
Neither of these examples really gets to true affection or a bond tho... I think that's harder to verbalize. Maybe the only way to describe it is that a horse who trusts you will say "Yes" when maybe they would rather say "No."
i'd say these horses look pretty happy tho!
7. Are horses capable of loving, in your opinion? I like to think so :) (even if the scientist in me doubts it lol)
8. If you could have one horse from your past come back for 5 minutes, who would it be, why, and what would you do with them in those 5 minutes? Another hard-to-answer question... there are so many horses in my past.... I'd love to ride Smellie Mae (gone too soon!) again, and feel how cantering down to a jump on her felt like there were giant neon placards counting down "5! 4! 3! 2! 1! LIFT OFF!" Or try to hang on for dear life as she whirled around some roll backs like the catty little pocket rocket that she was...
i'll always love this horse!
9. Should a trainer also be a friend, or should it be a student/teacher relationship? I'm honestly not too opinionated on this matter. For me, the most important element of my relationships with a trainer is TRUST. I have to unconditionally trust them to really learn from them. So... in instances where that trust is alive and well, I see no issues with also building a friendship on that. All the same, tho, I'm not particularly close with any of my trainers outside of lessons.
these gorgeous fall pictures make me hopeful that maybe i can get back out competing again this fall!
10. One piece of advice/training you were given by a trainer or mentor that you look back on now and view it as incorrect? My first trainer basically abhorred rein contact of any kind. As she grew older, she became more protective of her horses and felt like pulling was a cardinal sin. She may or may not have been right about pulling = bad, but perhaps took it a little too far. And it's legitimately taken me forever to learn what contact really is bc I've been so conditioned to just throw it away.
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Also - if you haven't already, don't forget to take a couple minutes to click through this quick survey on rider safety and gear. The answers so far have been FANTASTIC and I am really really REALLY looking forward to digging into the trends.
Thank you all for your participation and shares - there are some pretty exciting and insightful findings in the data so far. I'm also loving the commentary haha!
